Emily's Revenge?
by LanieSullivan
Summary: What if Emily had retalitated against Lorelai for her late night visit in 06.01 and got a surprise she wasn't expecting?
1. Chapter 1

AN: This is just a little idea I've had rattling around in my twisted little brain for a while after re-watching "New and Improved Lorelai". I kept thinking what if Emily had decided to retaliate against Lorelai for waking her up in the middle of the night. This is going to be just a one-shot for now as I'm desperately trying to keep going on "We're OK" I may continue this at a later date or I may leave it as is, depending on how long it takes me to get my other story completed.

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Luke and Lorelai lay contentedly in bed sound asleep; Luke spooned up behind her as was their usual sleeping habit. They'd spent another evening celebrating their engagement after Luke had presented her with the ring he'd bought her, underneath the chuppah he'd built for her. It had started out a little rocky when Luke realized she'd been crying over Rory's defection to her grandparents' house. He just let her cry until she'd gotten it all out, then decided to wait to give her the ring since she was so upset, but she'd insisted on knowing what he'd meant when he said "moment's here." He'd been elated the look of sheer joy on her face when he gave her the ring he'd so carefully picked out for her and how the sad tears had become happy tears when he slid it on her finger. She'd then kissed him sweetly, taken him by the hand and led him upstairs to her bedroom where they made love passionately, but tenderly, both relishing every moment of their renewed celebration. When they'd exhausted all their energy and were lying spent in each other's arms, they'd again talked about how incredible it was that they were getting married, before drifting off into peaceful sleep together. The moment was not to last, though as they were both startled awake by the sound of the bedroom door crashing against the wall behind it.

"What the hell is going on?" Luke shouted as he unwrapped himself from Lorelai and sat up in bed.

"That's what I'd like to know," Lorelai said as she also sat up, reached for the lamp on the nightstand and flipped the switch. She turned toward the doorway to see her parents standing in it.

"Oh my god," Emily said when she realized her daughter was not in bed alone.

"Aw jeez," Luke said as he tried to make sure that his private parts were covered as he was naked because of their earlier lovemaking.

"Hello to you too, Luke," Emily said with disdain as she noticed his state of undress and the clothing scattered across the bedroom floor.

"Mom, what the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Lorelai asked impatiently.

"Sorry to interrupt," Emily said her voice dripping with innuendo.

"You're interrupting nothing but sleep," Luke said getting irritated.

"Now, if you'd been here an hour ago, you'd have _really_ been interrupting something," Lorelai said with an impish grin directed at Luke.

"Jeez, Lorelai, Was that necessary?" He blushed furiously and turned back toward Emily, when it suddenly hit him that by committing to marry Lorelai, he was also committing to spending his life with the Gilmores as his in-laws. "Seriously, we were just sleeping when you walked in. That's it."

"Sleeping?"She questioned with an arched eyebrow still not believing it.

"Yes, sleeping. I have to be up in…" he glanced at the clock, "…three hours to open my business, so, yeah, we were sleeping."

"Do you always sleep like that with my daughter?" she asked indicating his nudity.

"How is that your business?"

"Mom," Lorelai interjected before this tiff between her mother and her fiancé could escalate. "You still haven't answered me. What are you doing here?"

"Well, you seemed extremely concerned about getting your laundry basket back," she said scathingly as she gestured toward her husband who was holding said basket. Richard had remained silent throughout this whole exchange. He didn't even want to be there, but Emily had insisted and he knew she was not a woman to cross when she was angry, so he'd gone along with it. He'd also gone along with it partly because he was hoping that his daughter might have calmed down a little since she'd left Hartford.

"Touché, Mom."

Luke looked at Lorelai and said, "Do I even wanna' know what that means or should I just shut the hell up?"

"I'll explain it all to you later, Doll," Lorelai replied.

"How the hell did you get in here, anyway?" Luke asked, glancing back at Emily." I know I locked the front door when we came in."

"The key in the turtle," Emily replied succinctly.

"There's a key in the turtle?" He looked at Lorelai. "How come I never knew there was a key in the turtle?"

"Because you don't need the key in the turtle, you have your own key."

"Luke has a key to your house?" Richard questioned finally breaking his long-standing silence.

"Yes, Dad, he does. He has for a while. It makes it a lot easier on the nights he closes the diner when he comes over here looking for a little late-night booty call."

"Lorelai, stop," Luke said blushing again. "I'm begging you."

"What? You know, that's what they're thinking about seeing us in bed together naked. They must think you're some kind of perv who's only after sex, even though you and I both know that's not true," she said fingering her engagement ring while she clutched the sheet tightly to her bare breasts. This action was not lost on Emily.

"Well, it seems congratulations are in order," Emily said with a look of contempt on her face directed at Luke.

"Well, that wasn't exactly congratulations, but sure. Close enough," Lorelai said sarcastically.

"When did this happen?" Richard asked. "I don't recall you wearing that ring when you were at our house earlier."

"I wasn't. Luke just gave it to me after I got home."

Emily looked at Luke, revolted and said, "Well, I hope to God you didn't propose to her in bed. That is completely tacky!"

"No, I actually-"Luke began.

"Mom, stop," Lorelai said cutting him off. "Luke has _way _more class than that, not that you'd know since you've never taken the time to really get to know him. You just make snap judgments based on who you think he is." The truth was she didn't want her to know that she'd been the one to propose to him. It would just give her overly-critical mother one more reason to take a swipe at the man she loved. "Now, you brought the laundry basket back, which I appreciate. So, if that's all you came for, it'd be nice if we could get back to sleep. The alarm clock will be going off at quarter to five so Luke can get to work.

"No, that's not all we came for," Richard said. "We were hoping we could talk to you about this situation with Rory."

"What's left to talk about? I went to you for help like a crazy person. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I must have been out of my mind to think you'd actually do something to help me without turning it around in some way that benefits you. You did what you want as usual, not giving a damn about the fact that I'm her mother and I want more for her. She worked so hard to get into Yale and it breaks my heart that you're letting her just throw it all away over that jackass frat boy and his stuck-up family who've done nothing but get her into trouble and cause her heartache. Now, when you came in here, I was quite happily sleeping in the arms of my fiancé and I'd very much like to get back to that." She flipped back over onto her side with her back to them.

"No," Emily said firmly. "We are not leaving until we talk about this calmly and rationally like adults. That is if you're capable of having an adult conversation."

Luke turned toward Lorelai and placed his hand on her arm, trying to get her to turn back around. "Come on, Lorelai. Let's get this over with. She sounds like she means it and I'd really like to be able to get dressed for work in the morning without showing off the goods to your mother," he said with a grin.

Lorelai turned reluctantly to face him and said, "You never know, if she'd seen what I've seen, she might enjoy the show." She smiled back at him and kissed him lightly on the lips before sitting back up taking great care to make sure she was still covered by the sheet. She looked at her mother, whose face had that patented Emily Gilmore look of disgust on it at the mention of Luke's unmentionables. "Do you mind giving us a minute? I'd really rather not have this kind of conversation in my birthday suit."

"Lorelai's right, Emily," Richard said. Perhaps we should go downstairs and give them a few minutes to get dressed."

"All right," Emily agreed. She took the laundry basket from her husband and set it down. "Here's your basket back. We'll be in the kitchen when you're ready." She and Richard left the room, leaving Luke and Lorelai alone. They stepped into the kitchen and waited less than two minutes before Luke walked into the room behind them dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. He reached for the coffee pot and began filling it with water. Emily looked at him. "Those aren't the clothes you were wearing earlier," she said remembering the discarded jeans and flannel shirt she'd seen on the floor.

"Nope, I had these in a drawer," he said gruffly as he started the coffee maker.

"Are you living here with Lorelai now?"

"Not yet," he said turning to look Emily square in the face, letting her know in no uncertain terms that he was planning on staying in her daughter's life no matter what she thought about it.

"So, you and Lorelai plan on moving in together?" Richard asked his future son-in-law.

"Eventually, yes," Luke replied. "We _are _getting married and isn't that the way it works? Don't husbands and wives generally live together?"

"You should know, since you're the one who's been married before," Emily replied curtly.

"So, I've been divorced. So what? So has Christopher and that didn't seem to bother you a few months ago when you were trying to shove him on Lorelai." Even though she'd come to him after the fact encouraging him to get back together with Lorelai, he still hadn't forgiven her for her interference that had caused the break-up in the first place. When Emily didn't reply, he continued. "To answer your question, we do plan on moving in together at some point. It's not really going to change things that much. We've spent very few nights apart since we got back together. I've got stuff here and she's got two drawers and half the closet at my place, so moving in together is just inevitable. We haven't made it official yet, but it _will_ happen."

"I see," Emily said quietly. "So, have you set a wedding date yet?"

"No," he said as Lorelai walked into the room wearing the shirt she'd taken off of him earlier. "What took you so long?" he asked her.

"I was picking up our clothes off the floor since we were kind of in a hurry to get rid of them earlier," she said mischievously, causing Luke to blush for the third time since his future in-laws had awakened them.

"Lorelai, _honestly_," Emily said in an exasperated tone. "Why do you have to be so crude?"

"Mom, I'm not going to apologize for sleeping with the man I love. I don't know why you're acting so shocked by this. You've known since I was fifteen that I'm not a virgin anymore. Besides which, Luke and I have been together for a while now. You didn't really think our time together was restricted to hand-holding and good-night kisses did you?"

"Of course not, but I think it's wildly inappropriate to be flaunting your sex life."

"Why? Luke is a very sexy man and he makes me happy. _Very _happy," Lorelai added while her mother rolled her eyes.

"That's enough!" Luke snapped. "Can you lay off the innuendo? I know you're doing it just to get a rise your of your mother, but I'm not at all comfortable with where this conversation is heading. Our private life should stay just that, private!"

"Why are you being such a granny about it? You weren't so shy about things when we were making love earlier. In fact I remember some words coming out of your mouth that were downright obscene."

"That was different. We were alone then and that was just between us," he said blushing again uncomfortable with the fact that Lorelai had just told her parents that he liked to talk dirty to their daughter.

"Oh please, Luke, they walked in on us being naked together. They have to know that we had sex at some point tonight.

"Knowing about it and talking about it are two different things."

"I have to say I agree with Luke on this one," Emily said. "This is not a conversation you should be having in front of your parents."

"I concur," Richard agreed.

Lorelai turned to the coffee maker and poured herself a cup. "Fine," she said. "I'll stop. Would you guys like some?" She asked her parents, indicating the coffee pot. They both nodded and she poured them each a cup as well.

"I just hope to God you're taking precautions," Emily said with a sneer, shuddering at the thought of any future grandchildren being fathered by the unkempt man in front of her. She hoped that this would just be another one of her daughter's many fleeting romances. She was waiting anxiously for the day when Lorelai would come to her senses and see that there were better men out there for her.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? We're in love and we're getting married. Why would it be so horrible if we wanted to have kids together?" Her mind flashed back to the night of the magazine party two weeks before and their extreme lack of precautions. She was hoping that what she'd told Rory was true and that it was a false alarm, but she hadn't had a period since then and she hadn't taken a test yet to confirm or deny it. Not that she didn't want kids with Luke now that she'd found out that was what he wanted too, but she still thought it was too soon for them and she still hadn't told him yet that it might be a possibility that the family he wanted had already been created."You're the one who's been telling me for years that I should get married, settle down and have a real family. Now that I finally found a man who makes me happy and I can see myself having all of that with, you're all freaked out because he doesn't come up to your standards. Well, guess what, Mom? For the first time in my life, I don't care what you think. Luke is the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."

"Since when have you ever cared what I thought about the choices you make with your life? You've always done just what you want whether I approve or not. I don't see this being any different."

"I've _always_ cared what you think. Why do you think your biting words hurt me so much? I hate it that you won't just let me be myself and be happy for me that I've found someone who loves me and makes me happy, even if you don't approve of him. That's what a parent is supposed to do, be supportive of their kids' life choices even if they don't agree with them."

"I can see you _really _believe that," Emily said sarcastically. "You've been _so _supportive of Rory's decision to take time off from Yale and move in with us."

"If I thought for one second that this was really what was going to make her happy, I'd be happily supporting her, but I think she's making a mistake. She's not doing this because she really wants to leave school. She's running scared because of that damned Mitchum Huntzberger and the horrible things he and his family said to her. She's doing the exact same thing Christopher has been doing for years. Every time things got too complicated for him, he bailed the hell on out, just like Rory's doing now. I never thought I'd _ever_ see that side of Christopher in her and it scares me to death! I can't stand watching her just throwing her dreams away or the fact that you're facilitating it when you promised to help me talk her out of it! You know that she belongs in school and not living like an heiress in your pool house!"

"That's what this is really all about, isn't it? You're angry that she chose to embrace the life that you rejected! We gave you the best of everything and you just threw it back in our faces as if it meant nothing to you!"

"That stuff _didn't_ mean anything to me! Not when all I wanted from you was your love and attention! Why do you think I did all the outrageous things I did when I was a kid? I was trying to get you to pay attention to me and see me for who I am, not this image of who you wanted me to be! I wanted so badly for you to just love me and accept me the way I am, but I was such a disappointment to you that you couldn't see past that and just love me unconditionally like a mother should!"

"You think I don't love you?" Emily was stunned. She'd never imagined this coming from her daughter.

"Well, it's true, isn't it? You can't love me because I'm such a disappointment to you. But now you've got Rory to be your pretend daughter and mold the way you want and she's a lot more malleable than I am, so she won't put up nearly as much of a fight as I did, especially since she's in a very vulnerable place right now."

"Lorelai," Richard said. "That's not what we're trying to do here. If you'd seen Rory's face, you'd understand why we did what we did. She came to me in tears looking completely crushed. I've never seen her like that before. It broke my heart and I _had _to do something to help her. I offered her the pool house before your mother knew anything about it."

"But do you honestly think that letting her run away from her problems instead of facing them is really going to help her?" Luke asked him. "She may be legally an adult, but she's still really just a confused kid who needs someone to guide her in the right direction instead of someone who's going to coddle her and let her just wallow in self-pity."

"What would you know about it? It's not like you have any children," Emily said haughtily.

"I spent two years as a guardian to my nephew trying to get him turned around and actually trying to make something of himself."

"And that turned out _so _well," Emily said sarcastically. "He didn't even graduate from high school."

"Maybe Jess didn't turn out so great, but that's not entirely my fault. My nut-job sister sent him to me when he was seventeen and already set in his ways. But he's doing a little better now. He's at least holding down a steady job and paying his own way and that's something considering the poor example his mother set for him, constantly losing her job, and getting evicted and flitting from one relationship to another, not once considering how that would affect her son. Maybe he didn't graduate under my influence, but I at least did manage to teach him a decent work ethic from all the time he spent working in my restaurant. Now, Rory on the other hand has the potential to do really great things with her life, but that's not gonna happen if the people around her let her just give up on her dreams and throw away everything's she's worked for."

"She's just taking a break. She's not leaving school indefinitely."

"That is such a crock! If she leaves school now, she won't go back! I know from personal experience. I left college to take care of my dad when he was dying and I always told myself that I'd go back and finish, but after he died, there was so much other stuff to do that I never did. I've always wondered where I'd be now if I'd finished my education and I don't want Rory to do the same. I don't want her to look back on her life twenty years from now and regret the choices she'd making now, especially when she's doing it for all the wrong reasons."

"I didn't know you had such an interest in Rory's future," Emily said pondering Luke's words.

"Well, I do. I've watched her grow up and how hard she's worked to get where she is. I love that kid as if she were my own and you don't know how many times since all this happened that I've wanted to drive to your house and drag her back here kicking and screaming and make her listen to reason!"

Lorelai placed a soothing had on his shoulder and said, "Luke, honey, calm down."

"No! I won't calm down! This is completely stupid! You and Rory not talking to each other is insane! The two of you have always been closer than any mother and daughter in the history of the world and this is wrong! I've tried to stay out of it because you asked me to, but I can't keep my mouth shut anymore! You need to talk some sense into your daughter and not let your anger at your parents interfere with that!" He turned to Emily and Richard and added, "And you two need to stay the hell out of it! The fact that you backstabbed your own daughter is unthinkable to me! She went to you for help, though only God knows why and you turned it around on her! That's not the kind of thing parents are supposed to do! If I ever had a kid that would be the last thing I'd ever think of doing!"

"Does that mean that the two of you are planning on having children?"Emily asked, eyebrows raised. "Or is that the reason for the sudden engagement? I noticed Lorelai getting a little defensive when I mentioned taking precautions."

"What the hell does that mean?" Lorelai asked hotly. "You think Luke would only want to marry me if he knocked me up? And for the record, our engagement is _not _sudden! Our relationship has been building toward this since we got back together! And just so you know, there's a very good chance that I could be pregnant right now!"

"What?" Luke asked in surprise. He was thrown. While they'd talked about having kids just a few nights ago, it hadn't occurred to him that they could already be having a kid together. "Are you pregnant? How did this happen?"

"Well, if I have to tell you how, clearly we're doing something wrong," Lorelai quipped.

"I know _how_," he said blushing again. "But I thought we were being pretty careful."

"We have been except for the night of the magazine party when we were both a little tipsy and things got a little out of control."

"Right," he said, blushing again as he recalled their encounter in the limo and again in his bed. "I remember."

"I didn't say anything before because we hadn't talked about the idea of having kids and now that we have, it's just that things have been so crazy, I wanted to wait until I knew for sure before I said anything. It's probably not true. It's just that it's kind of gotten me thinking. The last time I had unprotected sex it resulted in Rory, so it's been on my mind."

"So is that why you…" he didn't finish the question, not wanting her parents to know that he hadn't been the one to pop the question. It was bad enough that the whole town was making him feel like a loser over it.

"No, Luke! No," she insisted.

"Why she what?" Emily inquired.

"Nothing, Mom. It's just a private thing between me and Luke.

"So, what are you going to do if you _are _pregnant?"

"Just what we're doing. We're already engaged and planning a life together, a life that includes a family. If it turns out that our family is already started then maybe we'll just set a wedding date sooner. I don't really know, but that's up to us to decide, not you. You've already made your opinion about our relationship known and you're not going to be happy with me as long as I'm with Luke so I don't see where any of this is really your business."

"Not my business? How can you say that? If you're pregnant, the child would be my grandchild."

"And you've already stolen one child from me and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you steal another one. If I am pregnant now, I'm going to make damn sure you never get your hands on this child."

"Lorelai!"

"I mean it, Mom. If I can't trust the two of you to keep your word when it comes to Rory, how can I trust you with a baby?"

Richard, who'd been silent for a while, finally spoke up again. "Would it help if we had another talk with Rory and tried to convince her to at least talk to you again so that maybe we could all sit down together and hash this out?"

"That was my plan! All of us sitting down together and tag-teaming her to get her to change her mind, but you changed the plan!"

"We were only trying to do what's best for Rory."

"Do you really think this is what's best for her or is it just what's best for you?"

"Lorelai, that's not fair. You didn't see how upset Rory was when she came to see me. I just wanted to help her, but I have to admit that Luke may have a point. Letting her run away from her problems is probably not the best solution. So, maybe we should think about your original plan, Lorelai. All of us sitting down together and discussing this like adults so we can figure out what the best course of action for Rory is and I think Luke should be included in that."

"Richard, you can't be serious," Emily said.

"I am serious, Emily. Luke obviously knows from first-hand experience how hard is it to regain what you've lost when you take a break from college. Maybe he's the best person to be able to convince Rory to go back to Yale."

"Thank you, Richard," Luke said. When Lorelai started to protest, Luke stopped her, saying, "Lorelai, I know you're upset with your parents right now, but we all want the same thing and that's to see Rory happy and healthy. Maybe this is the best way to achieve that."

"Good," Richard said. "SO, it's all settled then. Why don't the two of you come to dinner Friday night and we can all talk about it then."

"Fine with me," Luke said though he didn't relish the idea of spending another evening at the Gilmore mansion, but he did want to help Rory. "Lorelai?"

"Sure, fine, whatever," she said noncommittally.

"All right, then," Richard said. "We'll see you Friday. Emily, let's go. We should let them get back to bed and get some sleep and get back to bed ourselves."

"Right," Emily said as she turned to follow her husband out the front door pondering what had just happened and wondering what was going to happen next in her daughter's life. She was stunned that Lorelai was engaged and that she had admitted that she and Luke wanted children and that they might already be having a child together. She hoped that Lorelai's scathing words about keeping any future grandchildren from her were only words spoken in anger and not something she would actually follow through on. She didn't want to miss out on knowing her grandchildren from the start like she had with Rory, even if it meant that she had to deal with Luke as a potential son-in-law. She smiled a little when she thought about the fact that Lorelai had at least agreed to come to dinner. That was progress toward mending the rift between them.

When the Gilmores left, Luke turned to his fiancée and asked, "So when I said 'what about the kids' how come you didn't say anything about the possibility that there might already be a kid?"

"I was stunned, Luke! I never thought of you as a kid guy. You're always going on about jam hands and how babies are loud and messy and I kind of panicked. I didn't think you'd want a baby. I don't know. I guess I thought maybe you'd bolt."

"You know all the ranting about kids isn't relevant to our kids, right?" he said trying to reassure her. "What bugs me isn't really the kids themselves as it is the parents who don't look after their kids, just letting them run around and do whatever, whenever. I know from watching you with Rory all these years that you would never be that kind of mother and I never thought of myself being a kid guy either, but since you and I got back together, I've been thinking about it more and more. The more that I thought about it, the more I realized that if I was ever gonna be a father, you're the only one I would want to be the mother of my children."

"So you really want to have a kid with me?"

"Yeah, I really do," he said as he slid his arms around her waist pulling her close and looking into her eyes. "I wasn't planning on it this soon, but if it's happened, then we'll just deal with it. I'm in this for the long haul. No bolting. Whatever happens, we'll get through it together. You're gonna have to kill me to get rid of me. I love you and I'm not going anywhere."

"Good," she said as she leaned her head on his chest comforted by his warm embrace and hopeful for the future now that she and her parents had at least agreed to try to start again.


	2. Chapter 2

Emily followed her husband into their home after returning from their late night visit to Stars Hollow still mulling over the events that had taken place in Lorelai's home. Richard looked at her in concern as she'd been silent the entire drive. He knew from experience that a silent Emily wasn't a good thing. That always meant that something was brewing under the surface.

"Emily, are you ok," Richard asked his wife. "You didn't say two words on the drive home."

"I'm fine," she lied not wanting to get into it this late at night.

"You're not fine. I know that look."

"What look?" she said evasively.

"That look that says you have something you want to say, but you're holding back. We've been married for forty years. I know you."

She turned to her husband and unleashed what she was feeling. "Why on earth would you invite that man to dinner?"

"Luke?"

"No, the gardener," she answered sarcastically. "Of course, Luke. Who else would I be talking about? What possessed you to invite him into our home after the way he attacked us in Lorelai's home?"

"I don't recall Luke attacking us," Richard said.

"Really? Where were you? I recall the way he screamed at us and the language he used. The man has no manners whatsoever?"

"Don't you think you're letting your personal feelings about Luke cloud your judgment a little? He obviously cares for Lorelai and he was simply defending her. He also told us that he loves Rory as if she were his own, in case that escaped your attention. I think it will be good for him to be here to talk to her and maybe be one more voice of reason that she'll listen to. He clearly wants the same thing we do, for Rory to be happy and go back to school where she belongs."

"God, I can't believe she's thinking of marrying that man! What could possibly be going on in her head? We have to do something about this!"

"No, we don't," Richard said firmly. "If you're thinking about trying to sabotage their relationship again, I'd strongly advise against that."

"Are you honestly telling me that you're ok with having that uneducated, slovenly man as a son-in-law?"

"No, I can't say that I am, but not for the same reasons you're not ok with it. My problem with him is that we don't really know anything about him."

"I know all I need to know about a man like that. I mean, it's clear what he sees in Lorelai," she said in disgust as she recalled all of her daughter's not-so-subtle references to their sex life. In her opinion a man like Luke only looked for one thing in a woman and she knew from past experience that her daughter didn't exactly play hard to get. "What I can't fathom is what she could possibly see in him."

"Emily, were you not listening to Lorelai tonight? She's in love with him. _Really_ in love. That's something I never thought I'd see in her and I just want her to be happy."

"_Please,_ Lorelai's never been in love, not even with Christopher. What makes you think this is any different? She's only with him to get to me because she knows I don't approve. She can't really be serious about him." She sighed hoping she was right, but she had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she wasn't.

"I think you're wrong, Emily. She's planning on marrying him. That sounds pretty serious to me."

"So what? She planned an entire wedding with that teacher and didn't marry him and he was a much better match for her. Why should this scruffy diner owner be the one to get her to follow through with it?"

"Because he makes her happy," Richard answered simply. "She said that several times tonight or weren't you listening?"

"I was listening," she said. "I distinctly recall her making many crude references to her sex life with him, but just because a man can satisfy her in bed doesn't mean he's capable of making her happy in the long run. Do you honestly think he's the kind of man who can make her happy for the rest of her life?"

"I honestly don't know," he said with a sigh. "As I said before, we don't really _know _Luke, but he seems to be fiercely protective of her and Rory. It's quite clear to me that he loves them both."

Emily stared at her husband as if she didn't know him, "You can't seriously believe that. What does a man like that know about love?"

"What do any of us really know about love other than how we feel about it? We don't know what makes two people fall in love with only each other in a world of infinite possibilities. Did it ever occur to you that maybe the two of them have something that we just haven't seen because we haven't spent much time with them as a couple? After all, this is the longest relationship that Lorelai's ever been in during her adult life. That's got to say something."

"I can't believe that you're supporting this ridiculous relationship all of a sudden," Emily said glaring at her husband dumbfounded.

"I'm not saying that I am, Emily. I don't know that their relationship has what it takes to stand the test of time, but I do know from what I witnessed tonight and from what I saw in Luke when I played golf with him that he's not the kind of man who's going to bow to pressure and let what he wants pass him by and he wants Lorelai."

"Many men have wanted Lorelai over the years. That doesn't mean that they're suitable life partners for her."

"That's for her to decide, not us. If she chooses to be with Luke, all we can do is be supportive."

"I don't accept that! I don't see him being a proper step-father to Rory or a proper father to our future grandchildren," she stated venomously. "Oh God! What if what she said tonight is true? What if he's already gotten her pregnant? What are we going to do about that?"

"We are going to do nothing, Emily. Do you hear me? Nothing," he said firmly. "If she is carrying Luke's child, it's up to them to decide how to handle the situation."

"I just hope to God it's not true. Can you imagine? It's bad enough to think that she's let that grubby man do who knows what kind of unspeakable things to her, let alone what kind of influence he may have on an impressionable child."

"When did you become such a prude? As Lorelai pointed out tonight, it's not as if we haven't known for years that she's sexually active and she loves Luke. That much is plain to me." Emily only snorted in response. "Emily, you have to get over this. Luke may not be the man that we would choose for Lorelai, but we can't do anything about it."

"Who says we can't?"Emily retorted hotly. "Maybe all we need to do is point out to her what she'd be missing out on by being with Luke." She began trying to formulate a plan to get her daughter to listen to reason when it came to Luke. She just knew in her heart that Luke didn't have what it took to make Lorelai happy for life.

"I don't think I like where this is going. Whatever scheme you're concocting in that twisted mind of yours, I suggest you abandon it right now unless you want Lorelai cutting us out of her life again."

"What makes you think I'm concocting some sort of scheme? I'm simply trying to do what's in Lorelai's best interest. That's what a mother is supposed to do."

"As I said before, I know you and I know how determined you can be to have your own way, regardless of what the consequences may be and if you're thinking of trying to break Luke and Lorelai apart again, I have a feeling you'll regret it. I told you before that you weren't thinking ahead when it comes to their relationship. I saw this engagement coming down the road even when you didn't. Now that it's happened all we can do is hope for the best."

"You worry too much." Emily said. "It's been a long night and I suggest we get some sleep. You still have to work in the morning," She walked toward the stairs leaving her husband shaking his head and staring with a worried look on his face as he tried to figure out what she was up to. He hoped his fears were wrong and that she's learned from her past mistake and wasn't going to try again to interfere with their only daughter's relationship. He sighed and followed her up to their bedroom.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The following morning when his alarm went off, Luke woke up and reached for Lorelai and realized with a start that he was in bed alone. This was highly unusual as Lorelai wasn't known for being an early riser. He crawled out of bed, wiping the sleep from his eyes and called out her name.

"I'm in the bathroom," Lorelai replied sounding a little nervous.

He walked into the bathroom to find her perched on the closed toilet seat clutching a small box in her hand. "Whatcha' got there?" he asked trying to figure out what she was up to.

"It's…um…," she hesitated not sure how to tell him what she was thinking. "It's a pregnancy test."

"Oh," he said realization dawning on him. "When did you get that?" He was still a little uncomfortable with the fact that she'd kept something this important from him, but in a way he understood. She'd made a good point last night. He wasn't known for being the most kid-friendly guy.

"I bought in Hartford a week or so ago, but I couldn't bring myself to take it until I was sure how I felt about the results of it. I just kind of shoved in the back of a drawer and tried not to think about it; hoping it would go away or I'd start my period and not have to worry. I didn't really know how to bring up the subject since we've only been back together a couple of months and we're still just getting back on track, plus the fact that we had never talked about kids and the way you always used to rant about what a pain kids are made me think that you wouldn't want a kid, but then we talked about it last Friday after we got engaged and I got to thinking that it'd be nice to have another kid and to actually do it with someone that I love. I so wanted to tell you about it that night, especially when you started talking about the Twickham house and the possibility of filling it with kids. I don't know why I didn't. I guess I was still just scared. It's one thing to say you want kids, but it's another thing entirely to be faced with the possibility that we'd be having one now."

"I get it," he said after her ramble was done. He indicated the still sealed box in her hands and said, "So, you still don't know for sure yet?"

"No," she replied. "I was gonna' take it this morning before you got up, but then I thought this is something huge that we should find out together."

"I'm with you on that one, so what do we do?" He really didn't know that much about how these things worked, but he was anxious to find out if he was going to be a father sometime soon.

"Well, really there's not much for you to do except be here for moral support. I've been sitting here for an hour reading and re-reading the instructions on the back of the box since it's been twenty years since I've taken one of these. Basically, I have to pee on this little stick and wait three minutes, and then we'll know if our family is already on its way."

"So, are you ready to find out?" He asked, not wanting to push her, but wanting to find out all the same.

"That's just it. I'm not sure. I mean, this could change everything."

"It doesn't have to," he said. "We talked about having kids the other night. If you are pregnant now, it'll just be a little sooner that we planned on and I guarantee you that whatever way that test turns out, I'm in this for good. If it's positive, we'll start making plans for having a baby around. If it's not, then we'll just start making plans for when we want to make the next one be positive." He smiled at her encouragingly to let her know that he was serious.

"Ok," she said with a firm nod as she rose from the toilet seat, planted a quick kiss on his lips and ripped open the box. "Here we go." While they waited nervously for the results of the test, they returned to the bedroom to get dressed for the day just to kill time. Lorelai bit her lip as she rummaged through her closet to pick an outfit for the day and tried to think of a way to bring up something else she'd meant to ask him about. "So, about the house thing," she began.

"What about it?"

"You said you could probably get it back. Did you mean that?"

"Yeah, but only if you want it," he said as he pulled a clean t-shirt over his head.

"I think I do," she said. "It's a beautiful house and, let's face it, if we're going to have kids, whether it's now or later, we'll need a bigger place than this." She pulled a blouse and a flowing skirt out of the closet and tossed them on the bed then moved to her dresser to get clean underwear.

"Are you sure? I know how much you love this house."

"I do love this house, but I also love you and I'm trying to think with my head, which you know is unusual for me, and I think that this place is just too small for a family. It was fine for just me and Rory," she swallowed hard thinking sadly of her daughter's empty bedroom downstairs and plunged on, "but it's nowhere near big enough for us and a baby," she turned away from Luke a little so he wouldn't see the unshed tears in her eyes as she focused on getting dressed.

"Ok," Luke said. "If you're sure this is what you want, I'll talk to Taylor today."

"Good," she said and hesitated again as she slipped the skirt she'd pulled out of the closet over her hips. She placed her hand lightly over her stomach, wondering if there was indeed a baby there. It was just hitting her while they were talking about their future how much she wanted to have Luke's baby. "Luke, I was thinking…" She turned back to face him.

"That's dangerous," he quipped as he buttoned the flannel shirt he'd put on over his tee.

She smacked him on the arm playfully and said, "I'm trying to be serious here."

"Ok, I'm listening. What were you thinking about?"

"I was thinking that if this test turns out negative, that maybe we should start trying to make the next one positive soon."

"You mean you want to start actively trying to have a baby now?"

"Yeah, I do. That is if we don't already have one on the way."

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because of all this stuff that's going on with Rory? I don't want you to use our kid to try to fill some void that Rory left in your heart. If we have a kid together, I want it to be because we're both ready for it."

"No, Luke. This isn't about Rory. This is about us. The more I think about it, the more I realize how much I want to have a baby with you. You've been so amazing with Rory over the years and she's not even your daughter. I can only imagine what a great father you'll be to our kids. I remember telling you a couple of years ago how I wanted the whole package and I can't see myself having that with anyone but you. I was just too stupid to see it at the time."

"We both were," he said as he reached for her, wrapping her in a tight embrace and planting a kiss on the top of her head. "But we've seen it now."

Lorelai lifted her head and kissed him longingly. He responded enthusiastically as he thought about the possibilities in front of them. He was overjoyed that she wanted the same things that he did. When they pulled apart both breathless from the intensity of their kisses she looked up at him and said, "So, do you think it's been three minutes yet?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"So, are you ready to find out if we're going to be parents?"

"Let's go," he said. They walked into the bathroom hand in hand both a little scared to look at the pregnancy test lying on the bathroom counter.

"I can't look," Lorelai said. "You look at it."

"I don't know how to read the stupid thing." He protested.

"The instructions are on the box," she said.

"I'll tell you what," he said picking up the box. "Let's look at it together."

"Ok," she said as she gripped Luke's hand tightly and they both looked at the test and compared it to the illustration on the box. "So, now we know."

"Yeah, so where do we go from here?"


	3. Chapter 3

AN: For this chapter, I decided to tweak Luke's financial situation a little. I never thought Kirk's comments in episode 5.21 about the state of Luke's finances made sense considering the fact that he was able to just drop a hundred thousand dollars on the building next door to the diner and was able to write a check to Lorelai for the thirty grand she needed for the inn without batting an eye, then in the sixth season was able to pay the construction crew an extra bonus for getting done early. I'm also borrowing a little dialogue from "The Ungraduate" regarding Luke and Lorelai's wedding plans even though it came later in the season.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So, now we know," Lorelai said.

"Yeah, so where do we go from here?"Luke asked a little nervously unsure of what Lorelai was thinking.

"I don't know. I mean, this is huge. I'm Miss independent-I-don't-need-any-help-from-anyone-single-mom' and you're Mr. Get-that-screaming-kid-out-of-my-diner and we're…"she trailed off unable to finish.

"We're having a baby," he said completing her thought. He looked at her and smiled as the news really began to sink in.

"Yeah," she said and smiled back at him.

Seeing Lorelai's smile made Luke's heart feel a whole lot lighter. He wrapped his arms around her. "This is amazing," he said.

"You think?" she asked still a little nervous.

"Yeah, I do," he said as he cupped her cheek and kissed her sweetly. He pulled back from her a little. He looked her in the eye, his own eyes misting and added, "I'm so happy. We're getting married and having a baby. I've wanted this with you for so long, but I never imagined in my wildest dreams that it would ever happen." He lightly placed his hand on her flat stomach and was awed at the knowledge that in a few months it would no longer be flat. It would be round and swollen with his child, _their_ child. He knelt in front of her and placed a soft kiss where his hand had been and said quietly, "Hi Baby. I'm your daddy."

Lorelai looked down at him as she cradled his head to her stomach where their unborn child was nestled and smiled suddenly wondering why she'd ever thought he'd freak out at the idea of being a father. She mentally kicked herself for thinking that this sweet wonderful man who was on the verge of tears because he was so overjoyed at finding out that she was pregnant would have not wanted this. She realized now the real depth of his love for her. "Luke, let's get married."

He looked up at her a little bewildered and said, "I thought we were already doing that." He stood up and took her hands in his looking into her eyes once more trying to get what she was saying. "Wasn't the whole point of getting engaged supposed to mean that we're getting married?"

"I mean, now. Let's get married right away. I don't want to wait."

"Are you sure?"He asked uncertainly. "We don't have to try to rush our wedding just because of the baby."

"Yes, I'm sure. I want to be you wife and soon. When I proposed to you last Friday night it wasn't because I might be pregnant. It was because of the ranting about the situation with Rory and how you were talking about kidnapping her and dragging her to class and babysitting her to make sure she goes."

"I suggest committing a felony and that made you want to marry me?"He asked shaking his head in amusement.

"Yes."

"I don't get it."

"You were willing to commit a felony for the good of my daughter and in that moment I kept thinking if this man is willing to go to that extreme for a kid that isn't even his, what will he do for his own kids? I hadn't planned on proposing to you. It just came out, but the whole thing made me realize just how in love with you I am and how much I want you to be the father of any children I have in the future and that you're the one I want that whole package with."

"So, in a way, it _was _about the fact that you thought you were pregnant."

"No. That wasn't even on my mind until we talked later that night and you were going on about your panicky 'what about the kids' outburst at the inn."

"So when you said 'kids would be good' you really meant it."

"Yeah, and did you catch the part just now where I said I'm in love with you. I've never said that before."

"Yeah, I caught that, but for the record, you have said it before."

"When?"

"Last night when you were yelling at your parents," he reminded her.

"Wow, I did huh?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile.

"Oh God," she said as a thought struck her. "My parents! They're gonna' totally freak when they find out."

"So maybe we don't tell them for a while."

"Come on, Luke. We're going to be at their house for dinner just two days from now. As soon as I turn down a drink, my mother's gonna' know, especially since I mentioned the possibility last night in my crazed outburst."

"Well, we'll deal with it then. Maybe we just steer the conversation toward Rory's issues which is the whole purpose of going. Believe I wouldn't volunteer for putting myself in the line of fire of your mother's constant barrage of insults if it weren't for you or Rory."

"I know. I hate that she treats you that way. I don't understand why my stuck-up mother can't see what a good man you are. You've always been there for me and Rory even when we didn't ask you to. It makes me so mad that she refuses to even try to understand how happy we are together."

"You didn't really mean what you said last night, did you? About keeping our kids away from her, I mean."

"I meant every word of it," she said firmly. "If she can't accept us as a couple, then I don't want her in our lives and that includes our children. All it will do is end up creating tension that kids shouldn't be exposed to."

"Are you sure that's the best thing to do? I know you were upset last night when you said that, but that was before we knew for sure that there actually is a baby on the way. With both of my parents gone, your parents are the only grandparents this kid's gonna' have and I can't stand the idea of keeping our kids from a part of their family."

"So, you're saying you're gonna' be ok with her constantly running you down in front of our kids, 'cause I'm not. We may not be married yet, but you're family to me and we're starting a new family together. That's gotta' be more important."

"I understand that and I agree, but there's got to be a way to work this out and find a happy middle."

"My mother doesn't believe in finding a happy middle. She's not happy unless she's getting her own way even if it makes everyone else miserable in the process."

"So, what, you're just gonna' cut her out of your life, our lives, again? I know you're mad at your mother, but you're not the only one involved in this now."

"Are you saying that you want to actually try to get along with her after the way she's treated you and the way she's tried to interfere in our relationship? In case you've forgotten, we broke up just three months ago because of her meddling."

"No, I haven't forgotten. The time we spent apart was the most miserable month of my entire life and I'm not ready to forgive and forget, but I wasn't talking about me or you, for that matter. This is bigger than both of us. I'm talking about the baby and any future babies we may have together. Do you want it be like it was with Rory? She barely knew her grandparents until she was sixteen years old and that only happened because you needed money to pay for her school. If your mother hadn't insisted on the weekly dinner as a stipulation of loaning you the money, she still wouldn't really know them."

"Maybe it would have been better that way. We wouldn't be in the situation we're in right now! Rory never would have run to my parents when she and I had a fight if I hadn't agreed to those stupid dinners and had just kept our visits restricted to holidays. I'm not gonna' take a chance of something like that happening with our kids. I'm not gonna' let Emily Gilmore interfere with how we raise our kids or have our kids grow up thinking that all they have to do is run to her if they don't get their way at home."

"Well, I want our kids to grow up surrounded by people who love them and that includes their grandparents!"

"Who are you kidding, Luke? My mother hates you for no good reason and she refuses to accept that you're the one I want to spend my life with. Do you honestly think she'll get past that and be able to love our kids?"

"Are you seriously suggesting that your mother is so heartless that she'd withhold her love from our children just because I'm their father?"

"Yes! You don't know my mother the way I do. She'll make our lives a living hell. It's better to cut her off now without even telling her about the baby."

"Then why the hell are we even going to this damn dinner Friday if we're not even going to try to mend fences with your parents?"

"That's for Rory, so we can try to talk her out of throwing her life away by dropping out of Yale. Believe me when I say I have absolutely no desire to spend an evening with my mother after everything she's done. The only reason I even started going back to Friday dinners in the first place was to try to get to know Logan better because Rory's dating him. After Emily broke us up, I wanted nothing more to do with her ever again. The only reason that I kept going was for Rory because I didn't want them to know more about my kid and her life than I did. They're good, you know. We had a plan, Rory and me. She had her heart set on Harvard, then she starts hanging with my stupid parents more and more and all of a sudden, she's turning down Harvard and choosing my dad's alma mater to make him happy. Granted, it's nice that she was closer to home, but she never would've even considered Yale if it weren't for them and she wouldn't have met that snotty little bastard who caused all this. He's so much like Christopher, it makes me sick. I guess it's true what they say about women looking for men that are similar to their dads. In Rory's case, I always thought she'd find someone more like you since you've always been more of a dad to her than Chris."

"I wouldn't say that theory of women looking for men like their dad is entirely true. Look at me; I'm nothing like your dad."

"Actually, you're a lot more like my dad than you realize."

"How do you figure?"He asked confounded by this statement. He couldn't think of anything he and Richard Gilmore had in common.

"Well, you're both athletic, though your tastes in sports are different. You like baseball and he likes golf. You both like to read. He reads the classics and you read those sci-fi and fantasy novels, but still it's something you both enjoy. You both kind of keep silent when something's bothering you until someone pushes you and forces it out of you, then you let loose. You're both hard-working men who do what it takes to succeed. Plus you're both fiercely protective of family. Look at all you've done for Liz and Jess. If what my dad said is true and Rory came to him in tears, I can totally see why he would want to do whatever was necessary to help her. You would've done the same. I just think he made the wrong choice. On the plus side though, I think he realized that last night when he invited us to dinner."

"Huh," Luke said pondering her comparison of him to her father. "How about we reserve judgment on whether to include your parents in our lives until after we see how this dinner goes. Maybe they'll surprise you."

"Fine, if you're gonna' try to use logic."

He chuckled, pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. He kissed the top of her head and said, "If things get too bad Friday, we'll just leave and not go back, ok?"

Lorelai pulled back a little to look at him and said, "Ok. I'd better let you go so you can get ready to open the diner."

"Hey, I run the place. I can be a little late if you want to talk some more."

"No, it's fine. I think I might take a nap since I got up so early. I don't have to be at the inn until nine today and it's not even six yet."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea, especially since we got woken up in the middle of the night. You need your rest." They walked back into the bedroom together and Lorelai crawled under the covers. "You're gonna' sleep in your clothes? They'll get all wrinkled."

"I just don't feel like changing and I'm the boss so who cares what I look like?"

"Ok," he said with a chuckle as he reached for his wallet, keys and his favorite baseball cap. He sat beside her on the bed. "I'll see Taylor today when he opens the soda shop. Are you sure you want the house?"

"Yes, I'm sure. We're gonna' need a bigger place for our family. Get the house back before someone else snatches it up."

"Ok. Are you gonna' come in for breakfast?"

"Don't I always?"

"Most of the time, but not always. I was just thinking that if you're gonna' come in that I could get my datebook out of my desk and we can start talking wedding dates."

"It's a plan," she confirmed.

"Good," he said with a smile. "I'll see you then." He leaned down and kissed her good-bye then ran his hand across her stomach and said, "Bye, Baby. Daddy loves you." After he left Lorelai laid her own hand where his had just been and smiled before falling into a peaceful sleep dreaming of her future with Luke.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Later that day after her breakfast at _Luke's, _Lorelai walked into the kitchen of the Dragonfly and was immediately gripped in a tight hug by her exuberant best friend who was squealing excitedly. Lorelai extricated herself from Sookie's grip and said, "What's going on, Sookie?" She looked toward Michel who was also in the kitchen drinking his morning coffee. "Did you let her overdose on sugar again 'cause I warned you about that."

"Why do just assume it's something I did?"Michel asked. "Did it ever occur to you that your friend simply needs to cut down her dosage?"

"Hey!" Sookie said.

"So, I don't need to worry about you crashing in an hour or so?" Lorelai asked Sookie.

"No, I'm just excited about planning your wedding! You and Luke are so perfect for each other and I want you guys to have the perfect wedding. I mean, you're engaged!" She squealed again.

"But what brought this new wave of excitement on? You've known about the engagement almost since it happened."

"I know, but Babette called me last night and told me she saw you and Luke outside and that it looked like he was giving you a ring."

"He was," she said and proudly showed her the diamond ring on her left hand.

Sookie grabbed Lorelai's hand and squealed again when she took a good look at her friend's engagement ring. "Oh my God, it's gorgeous! Luke has good taste."

"Yes, he does, but I'm gonna' need my hand back at some point."

"Right," Sookie said as she released Lorelai's hand. "Anyway, aside from the call from Babette last night, Miss Patty called me this morning and said you and Luke were talking about setting a date when she was in the diner."

"Wow, I knew word got around fast in this town, but this is crazy. I just left the diner ten minutes ago."

"So when is it? I had Michel black out all of July for next year!"

"You what?"

"I figured you and Luke for an outdoors-y summer wedding. July 23rd is my pick, but I am flexible."

"Michel, un-black it out," Lorelai said.

"I told you," Michel said smugly to Sookie.

"'I told you' what?"

"I told her that you are not getting married."

"I _am _getting married," Lorelai said offended that yet one more person didn't believe that she was serious about Luke.

"You were right, you called it," Sookie said to Michel as if Lorelai hadn't said anything

"The woman can't commit to a purse, much less a man," Michel added.

"I _AM _getting married," Lorelai said with more emphasis trying to get her point across.

"I am so naive. I…I believed," Sookie said in disappointment.

"Live and learn," Michel said nonchalantly as if he didn't care one way or another.

"Hey! I am getting married," Lorelai said again getting angry. When both of them stared at her blankly she said, "I am! We set a date today and we will get married on that date, and I've had the same purse for almost a year, thank you very much!"

"Of course, my mistake," Michel said sarcastically. "Now let me go cancel your wedding plans." He started to leave the room.

"Michel, get back here," He turned and glared at her. "Those are not my wedding plans! Those are Sookie's wedding plans!"

"Well, fine then!" Sookie said folding her arms across her chest in irritation. "What are _your _wedding plans?"

"They haven't been formalized yet. We just set the date today and we want to do it here at the inn June 25th."

"June 25th? I can work June 25th," Sookie said starting to get excited again. "That still gives us a little over a year to plan."

"No, Sookie. It gives us a little over a month to plan."

"What?! Are you crazy? We can't plan a decent wedding in only a month!"

"Sure, we can. How many weddings have we planned together over the years? We can do this."

"There's no way, Lorelai. I…I…I can't work under that kind of pressure," she said in a panic.

"Then I'll do it all myself. Either way we're getting married June 25th. That's the date we picked and that's the day we're having our wedding. I just thought my best friend would want to help me make plans."

"I didn't say I wouldn't help, but why so soon," Sookie asked still panicking as she started making a mental list of everything that would need to be done. Her eyes widened suddenly, realization dawning on her. "Oh my God! You're pregnant!"

"Shh…. Not so loud. We don't want everyone to know yet and Michel, you'd better keep your mouth shut too. If this gets around town I'll know it was one of you two. We haven't told anyone yet. Luke and I just found out ourselves this morning. I haven't even been to the doctor yet."

"Ok, my lips are sealed just like The Go-Gos. I hope you start telling people soon, though. I'm not sure how long I can keep this to myself. I'm just so excited! I bet you and Luke are gonna' have the most beautiful baby!"

Michel snorted at this. "Not likely with him as the father, that is assuming he _is _t he father," he said.

"Of course, he's the father. How many men do you think I'm sleeping with?"

"With you history, one never knows," he said sardonically. "I have to say I already feel sorry for the child if he inherits the diner man's looks."

"Hey! Luke's a very good-looking guy," Lorelai protested.

"How can you tell under all that facial hair that he never bothers to shave and don't even get me started on his choices in fashion."

"How about you go make those changes to the calendar up front so that nothing else gets booked the weekend of my wedding and un-black-out next July?"

"Fine," he said and walked out of the kitchen in a huff."

Sookie once again grabbed her friend and hugged her tight. "I'm so happy for you!" She released just as abruptly as she had grabbed her and continued, "So, how did Luke take the news? Is he as excited as I am? He's gotta' be excited about it, right? I mean, after his 'what about the kids' moment when he thought you might sell the inn."

"Yes, Sookie, he's excited. In fact, it wouldn't be a stretch to say he's on cloud nine right now. No, scratch that. I'd say he's on cloud ninety-nine if there is such a thing."

"So, he's happy?"

"Yes, he's happy."

"And you? Are you happy about this?"

"Yes, Sookie, I'm happy."

"Really? You kind of don't look it right now and why don't you want people to know?"

"Trust me, Sook, I'm happy. In fact I'm Dick-Van-Dyke-it's-a-jolly-holiday-dancing-with-penguins kind of happy right now."

"Wow, that's a lot of happy."

"It is. I really want this. We just want to wait a while before announcing it to the town. Rory doesn't know yet and we've got this whole Friday dinner thing with my parents and that promises to be more dram filled that _Desperate Housewives._"

"How do you think the Gilmores are gonna' take the news?"

"I don't know and I don't really care at this point. However they react, it's not changing anything. I'm still marrying Luke next month and I'm still having his baby sometime this coming winter."

"Wait," Sookie said as a thought occurred to her. "When did you decide to start going back to Friday night dinner? I thought you were done with that after the dirty double-cross they pulled on you."

"Well, it started with my parents walking in on me and Luke naked and ended with the two of us being roped into spending Friday night with them."

"Ok, I so need more info, especially on the part where your parents walked in on you and Luke naked. How the hell did that happen? Were you guys, you know, doing it when they walked in."

"No, thank God. I think my mother wouldn't have had a heart attack and dropper dead on the spot."

"Still not getting the full picture here," Sookie said.

"Ok, here goes," Lorelai said as she related the whole story of the night before to her best friend.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Richard stood outside _Luke's, _but was hesitant about going inside, not sure of the response he'd get from his future 'd spent most of the morning in his office not getting any work done while he was contemplating the events of the previous evening. He'd finally realized that it was pointless to stay there when he couldn't concentrate on his work, so he'd taken the rest of the day off with the intent of getting a few things resolved from the night before. He smiled a little as he recalled the horrified look on his wife's face when she'd realized that her plan to retaliate against Lorelai for waking them in the middle of the night had backfired on her. He wasn't exactly thrilled to see Lorelai in bed with Luke like that. While he'd known for many years that his daughter wasn't exactly celibate, he preferred not to think about her in that way and he wished he could erase the imagery of his naked daughter and her fiancé from his head, but the look on Emily's face had been priceless. His smile quickly faded as his thoughts turned to Emily and what she was up to. He hadn't been able to pry anymore information from her and she'd hurried off this morning before he had and evaded his questions about her destination. He hoped that she wasn't planning some new way of trying to break up their daughter's obviously happy relationship, but he had a feeling that that was exactly what she had in mind. He was hoping to have a talk with Luke before whatever hare-brained ploy his wife had up her sleeve came into play. He'd driven to Stars Hollow because he wanted to let him know that he was going to be supportive as long as he continued to make Lorelai happy, but now he wasn't so sure it was a good idea. He didn't really know Luke and wasn't sure if he'd even be welcome in the diner. He released the breath he hadn't realized that he'd been holding and pushed the door open causing the bell above it to jingle.

"I'll be right with you," Rory's young Asian friend said without really glancing at him as she rushed over to the table by the window, her arms laden with plates full of food. After she'd made her deliveries, she turned back to him and said, "Sorry. We're a little busy."

"So, I see," Richard said as he looked around the diner and noticed that there wasn't one empty table. He also noticed that Luke was nowhere in sight.

"Oh, Mr. Gilmore, I'm sorry," Lane said apologetically recognizing who she was talking to. "I didn't realize who you were for a second. It's been a while."

"That's quite all right. It's Lane, right?"

"Yep, that's me," she confirmed. "It's gonna' be a bit of a wait if you want a table, but there are some open seats at the counter if you don't want to wait."

"No, that's not necessary. I'm not here to eat."

"Well, if you're looking for Lorelai, she's not here. She's at the inn, but she should be here soon. She usually comes in for lunch around this time of day."

"Actually, I'm not looking for Lorelai. I was hoping for a moment of your boss' time. Is he around? Perhaps in the kitchen?"

"Yeah, he's around, but now is not really a good time."

"Yes, I can see that you're busy. Maybe I will just have a seat at the counter and grab a bite to eat while I wait for Luke."

"That's not the reason it's not a good time. We've totally got this covered. It's not a good time 'cause Luke's next door yelling at Taylor and interrupting that is never a good idea." She gestured over her shoulder to the window between the two buildings causing Richard to glance that direction where he could see that Luke was clearly agitated about something as he'd been the night before when he'd made his feelings on the whole matter with Rory known.

"Lane, order up," Caesar yelled from the kitchen.

"Crap! I gotta' go," she said and hurried off to deliver yet another order to hungry customer leaving Richard wondering what to do next. He decided to take his chances on interrupting the argument that was going on in the next building. He heard the shouting before he even walked into the soda shop. He noticed that unlike the diner next door, there were no customers here.

"Taylor, you're being completely unreasonable!" Luke shouted as he emphatically waved what looked like a checkbook in the older man's face.

"Well, how do you expect me to react when you drop something like this on me? And let me tell you, I am not thrilled with you storming in here and running my customers out of the building. A building I might add that I pay you good money to rent." Both Luke and Taylor had failed to notice the tall well-dressed man who had just entered the shop.

"Please, you're not gonna' go broke with all the other stuff you've got going on and I don't want the whole damn town knowing my business! Now, are you gonna' give me an answer or not?"

"I don't know Luke. I need some time to think this over."

"What's there to think over? I've already got the blessing of the town elders to buy the house and now I want to buy it. I'm ready to write a check for the down payment right now!"

"But just a few days ago, you said you didn't want the house anymore. What's gonna' happen if I give in and then you and Lorelai have another fight and you change your mind again?"

"First of all, Lorelai and I did _not _have a fight. It was a minor misunderstanding that we worked out. Second of all, things have changed since then and I need that house!"

"I know things have changed. You and Lorelai are engaged now. I remember being the first one you told when the two of you were harassing me about opening the market in the middle of the night, but I just don't know if I can trust you not to back out again."

"I'm not gonna' back out again. Trust me on this. I'm seeing it through this time and I talked to Lorelai about it and she wants the house too. It shouldn't be that big of a deal. You've already got all the damn paperwork with my signature on it. All you have to do is change the damn date!"

"I don't see why this is so important to you. When you and Lorelai get married, you could just move into her house."

"That house is too small! We need a bigger place and the Twickham house is the one we want! Come on, Taylor! I want this settled now!"

"But why? Why is it so important to you to have an answer right this minute?"

"Because Lorelai's pregnant," Luke blurted out without meaning to and regretted it instantly when he saw the smug smile forming on Taylor's face. Richard reacted to the news a little differently. He wondered if this would be enough to stop his wife's crusade to interfere in their daughter's life.

"Well, congratulations! I can see now why this is so important to you."

"Look, I know this is a lot to ask considering you've never been good at keeping a secret, but could you not say anything to anyone. We don't want the whole town knowing about it just yet. We just found out this morning and we're still kind of processing it ourselves."

"I understand," He said. "So, you said you're willing to write a check for the down payment today?"

"That's it? You're just giving in now?"

"Well, this news does change things. With a baby on the way, you and Lorelai definitely need that house. As long as bank tells me you've got enough money in the bank for the check to clear, I'll submit the paperwork today."

"I've got plenty of money in the bank, Taylor. You should know that. You made sure of it when we went through all of this the first time."

"But things change. Who knows what could've happened to your finances since then."

"Taylor, it's only been a week. Not that much has changed except that I've now got another week's worth of deposits from the diner in the bank, pretty decent-sized ones at that. In case you haven't noticed, the diner's been swamped lately."

"I _have _noticed actually. I've been getting some of the overflow here."

"Then you know I've got the money to cover the down payment and more."

"Ok, ok. Write the check so I can get back to running my business here and you can get back to running yours."

"Good," Luke said as he proceeded to make a down payment on his and Lorelai's future. When he'd finished he walked toward the door and jumped back a little when he saw Richard standing there. "Jeez, make a noise or something. How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to know that I'm going to be a grandfather again," Richard replied. "Could we take a little walk away from the prying eyes of your home town? I'd like to talk to you about some things, including this new bit of information. Luke nodded as he and his future father-in-law headed out the door and toward the town square.

"Yeah, about that," Luke began a little hesitantly. "If this is gonna be the whole 'what are your intentions with my daughter' kind of talk, you can skip it. I know you don't approve of my relationship with Lorelai, but I want you to know that I fully intend to take responsibility for her and our baby."

"So, I see. It seems I walked in you making a deal to buy her a bigger house. Very sensible, given the situation."

"The house she lives in now is nowhere near big enough and my apartment is barely big enough for me."

"You currently live above the diner, don't you?"

"Yeah, for now, but I haven't really been spending a whole lot of time there lately. I've mostly been at her place, like I was last night when you guys woke us up." He blushed slightly still embarrassed by the fact that his fiancée's parents had seen him in bed with their only daughter.

"Luke, it's alright," Richard said sensing Luke's embarrassment. "I realize that you and Lorelai are both adults well over the legal age of consent. The…er…physical nature of your relationship with her is not what concerns me. I'm not quite as stuffy about these things as Emily is."

"I get that. I just want you to know that this relationship is not just some random fling. Lorelai means the world to me and I'm in this for the long haul. I love her with all my heart and I plan on spending the rest of my life with her."

"I'm sincerely glad to hear that, Luke."

"Really? Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"Look, I know that I haven't been exactly receptive to the idea of having you as a potential son-in-law nor have I really taken the time to get to know you, but I can clearly see how much you love my daughter and I want you to know that you have my approval."

"Gee, thanks," Luke said sarcastically. "It's nice to know that I have your permission to marry the mother of my unborn child."

"I didn't mean it that way. Obviously, you don't need my permission to marry Lorelai and it's not as if she would ask for my blessing anyway. I think you and I both know that Lorelai does what she wants when she wants and no one can stop her when she makes up her mind to do something. She's quite the stubborn woman, just like her mother."

"That's the truth," Luke said with a chuckle.

"Yes, and she's made up her mind that she wants to be with you. I accept that. I only want her to be happy and she seems to be happy with you."

"I hope so," Luke said as he stopped walking and turned toward Richard. "So, if you are actually saying that you finally accept us as a couple then what was the point of your visit?"

"That _was_ the point of my visit. That and to give you a little warning."

"What kind of warning?"

"While I approve of your impending marriage to my daughter, Emily will be harder to win over. I'm sure you've noticed that she's a bit of a snob when it comes to Lorelai's relationships. She means well and always has Lorelai's best interests at heart, but she sometimes goes about things the wrong way and I think she's up to something now. I don't know what, but I thought you should know so you can be prepared for the worst."

"Thank you for the warning," Luke said with a worried look on his face wondering what his future mother-in-law had planned.

"So, this house," Richard said changing the subject. "Is it here in Stars Hollow?"

"Yeah, actually this is it right here," Luke said indicating the house behind him. It hadn't really dawned on him that he'd stopped walking in front of the house that he and Lorelai planned to raise their family in until Richard has asked about it. He wondered if this was one of those subconscious whatchamacallits that Dr. Phil was always yammering about.

"It's a very nice house. It doesn't seem at all your taste though."

"Are you kidding? I love this house! I've loved this house since I was a kid. This is a great house. They don't build houses like this anymore. I can't wait to get in there and start making plans for fixing it up. It needs some work just because it's old but it's got a lot of potential. It's got big rooms and a great kitchen with tons of work space that I could go to town in."

"You really enjoy cooking, not just for the diner?"

"Yeah, I do. It's something my mom and I used to do together when I was a kid. She taught me everything she knew. She really loved it and my sister never had any interest in it. It was a good thing she started teaching me to cook at a young age because when she died, we'd have starved to death otherwise. My dad and my sister were both hopeless in the kitchen. Liz still is, just like Lorelai."

"Then it's a good thing she has you to cook for her. Liz is your sister, I'm assuming."

"Yeah, she and her husband just live a couple of blocks from here."

"It must be nice having your family so close by."

"Sometimes," he said. "But sometimes she can get on my nerves."

"That's normal with siblings," Richard said with a chuckle.

"I'll tell you something, though, she absolutely loves Lorelai. I wish my parents were around to meet her. They would have loved her too. My dad wouldn't have said anything about it, but he'd have felt it. He was kind of reserved about sharing his feelings, like I am. It's funny how much my dad and I used to squabble when I was growing up, but the older I get the more I see of him in myself."

"It must have been hard for you to lose both of your parents that young."

"Yeah, and Liz was gone too. She'd run off with the worthless jerk who'd gotten her pregnant when she was only seventeen. Then he took off and left her before she was even out of the hospital after having Jess. I wanted to kill him."

"I can imagine. I know how I felt when Lorelai got pregnant with Rory. I wanted to put Christopher's head through a wall and then when he abandoned his responsibility to her and Rory after she refused to marry him, I wanted to hunt him down and rip him apart with my bare hands."

"Jeez," Luke said a little uncomfortably, hoping that Richard wasn't thinking the same thing about him right now. "I'm guessing you're none too thrilled with me right now either seeing as how I'm the reason that Lorelai's pregnant again."

"You have nothing to fear from me, Luke. Granted, I would've preferred it if the two of you had been married before my new grandchild was conceived, but there's no changing it now. Should a time ever come that you hurt my daughter in any way then you'll have something to worry about. I may not be as young as you are, but I can still hold my own."

I would never intentionally do anything to hurt her. It breaks my heart to see her in any kind of pain. That's why I got so angry last night and yelled at you. You didn't see her after she left your house last Friday. I've never seen her looking so defeated before. She's always been so amazingly strong and she just looked completely crushed."

"That's my fault. I started all of this, but I'm hoping that this dinner on Friday will rectify that mistake."

"I guess we'll see."

"I should let you get back to work. It seems that the diner is pretty busy."

"Yeah, I should go give Caesar a break in the kitchen. So, I guess I'll see you Friday."

"Don't be late. Emily will never forgive you."

"You got it," Luke said and began walking back to the diner. Richard's gaze followed him as he reflected on their conversation. He breathed a sigh of relief that it had gone better than he'd thought it would. He'd been worried that Luke wouldn't give him a chance to make his feelings known. He glanced back at the house that Luke had just made arrangements to buy for his family and smiled before making his way back to his car, confident that now he'd be able to return to work with no distractions.


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn't long after Richard returned to his office that he heard a knock on the door. He looked up from his contracts and said, "Come in."

"Richard, do you have a minute?" Floyd Stiles asked him.

"Sure, what's going on? This isn't about the Dalton claim again, is it?"

"No. You seem to have things well in hand there. I'm impressed by the way."

"Thank you," Richard said. "So what brings you here if not the Dalton mess?"

"This has nothing to do with work. I was just wondering if you'd seen this," Floyd said and handed him a newspaper article.

"What is it?"

"Well, you know that I read the _New York Times _religiously and this was in the Sunday paper the weekend before last. I've been meaning to show it to you for a while, but we've both been busy so this is the first opportunity I've had to give it to you. I thought it might interest you since it concerns your daughter."

"What could possibly have been run in the _Times _that would concern Lorelai?"He asked a little concerned.

"Just read it. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. It seems she's done quite well for herself with that inn of hers."

"Thank you," he said. When Floyd had left he began to read wondering what he was talking about. He smiled as he perused the article and his heart swelled with pride as he read and made a mental note to show it Emily as soon as he got home hoping that she would be just as pleased as he was.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke closed the oven door with a satisfied smile as the dinner he was preparing for his fiancée was progressing just the way he wanted it to. He puttered around the kitchen of the crap shack setting the table and lighting candles knowing that Lorelai would be home very soon. He wanted everything to be perfect for celebrating their good news. He had a bottle of sparkling apple cider chilling in an ice bucket since Lorelai couldn't drink, not to mention the fact that he preferred it to champagne, and lasagna in the oven knowing how much she love Italian food. Of course Lorelai wouldn't care if he'd just brought home burgers and fries from the diner. She loved food in general, but he wanted tonight to be special. It wasn't every day that you found out the woman you loved was carrying your child. He smiled the same goofy smile that had been plastered on his face all day. He didn't think he could be any happier. They were finally on track, they'd set a wedding date and started making plans for starting their lives together, he'd gotten Taylor to cave on the Twickham house and they were having a baby. Richard had come to see him to give him his approval for their upcoming marriage and didn't even seem freaked out by the fact that he'd gotten Lorelai pregnant. In fact, he'd seemed happy that he was going to be a grandfather again. Life was good. He'd even managed to push aside the nagging thoughts of whatever Emily might be up to for the time being. He glanced back at the table and the vase of yellow daisies in its center, hoping that Lorelai would like them and get what he was trying to do. He wasn't the biggest romantic in the world, but he wanted her to know in no uncertain terms how happy he was with the direction their life together was going. His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. He opened the door to find his future mother-in-law on the other side.

Not waiting to be invited in, Emily pushed her way past him and into the living room and said, "Hello, Luke.

"Hi," he said as he closed the door and followed her. "If you're looking for Lorelai, she's not home yet."

"I'm not. I came here to talk to you. I went by your little restaurant, but that Asian friend of Rory's said you'd already left for the day, so I thought I might find you here."

"I'm here," he said. "I spend a lot of time here as a matter of fact," he added making it clear that he was a big part of Lorelai's life.

"Well, I'll come straight to the point, Luke. I think you're a smart enough man to know that I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea of you marrying my only daughter."

"No, you're kidding," Luke said dryly.

"Don't get smart with me. I've come here to make you a proposition."

"Well, you'll have to do it in the kitchen then. I've got a dinner to keep an eye on," Luke said as he turned his back on her and made his way back to the stove opening the oven and peering inside.

"You're cooking?"She asked in surprise as she followed him into the kitchen and watched as he reached for an oven mitt and used it to pull out a pan of homemade garlic bread.

"Yeah," he said. "Something I do quite a lot. It keeps my 'little restaurant' in business." He set the pan on the stovetop to cool. "Now, you said something about a proposition. I don't know what you possibly think you have to offer me that I'd be interested in, but you've got my attention." He turned around and leaned against the counter folding his arms across his chest.

"Good," She said as she reached into her purse and pulled out her checkbook. "I won't waste anymore of your time then. Just tell me how much it will take to get you out of my daughter's life." She began furiously scribbling in her checkbook and signed her name with a flourish and tore the top check out of the book.

Luke chuckled at this and said, "You've got to be kidding."

"Is this funny to you?"Emily asked impatiently.

"Yeah, it is. I expected a little more imagination from you, Emily. I mean, trying to buy me off is so beneath you. It just screams prime time soap opera."

"Here," she said handing him the check she'd written out. "Just name your price. Fill in whatever amount you want and get out of my daughter's life."

Luke glanced at the check she'd handed him and laughed even harder. "Nice penmanship," he said sarcastically.

"I'm glad you find this so amusing," Emily said fixing him with an icy glare.

"So, this is your big plan? Wipe out your bank account to get me to break up with Lorelai? What happened to all that talk when you accosted me at the diner about how you were going to stay out of our lives?"

"I wasn't doing that for you. You were just a means to an end. I wanted Lorelai to stop cutting me out of her life and I imagined the insane relationship between the two of you would have run its course by now, as all of her relationships do. Clearly that's not the case. Now, I don't care what amount you put on that check. Whatever the cost, it's worth to me to stop my daughter from throwing her life away. Surely you've thought about what you could do with unlimited money at your disposal."

"So, what do think is going to happen here? I take you up on your offer and you think that's it? That I'll just disappear from Lorelai's life? You do remember that we both live in the same very small town. We're bound to run into each other again and in case you've forgotten we were close friends long before we were ever lovers."

Emily cringed at the word 'lovers' revolted by the knowledge that the man in front of her had had his way with her only daughter. "I realize that. I'm not asking you to just end things with Lorelai. If you accept this, I want you out of Stars Hollow since Lorelai seems determined to stay here. If you're not here, then maybe Lorelai will come to her senses."

"You're insane. This is my home town. I've lived here since the day I was born and so did my parents and my grandparents. I've got roots here, not to mention friends, family and a business. You want me to just pack up and leave all that behind? Where would you suggest I go?"

"I don't care where you go as long as it's far away from Lorelai. You'd have plenty of money to start over somewhere else. Think about it."

Luke took a moment to simply stare at her and contemplated what she was saying, unable to believe her sheer nerve. "Let me borrow your pen," he said.

"Good," Emily said with a triumphant smile as she handed him her pen. She watched as he wrote and added, "I'm glad you're willing to be reasonable. Let's face it; you and Lorelai don't exactly come from the same world."

"No, we don't," he said as he handed her back the check and waited for her reaction. Emily's smile faded as she looked at the words "go to hell" written across the check in big block letters and was replaced with a scowl as she balled up the check and tossed in across the room in frustration. "But we do live in the same world now, the world of the sane. You know where the door is, Emily. I'm sure you can see yourself out."

"This is not over! You don't get it! I will _not_ allow a man like you to marry into my family."

"No, Emily, _You _don't get it! I love Lorelai and I'm going to marry her and there's no amount of money in the world big enough to get me to change my mind!"

"This is not going to happen! Lorelai belongs with Christopher, not you! Everyone knows that!"

"You know, that's funny, because I don't recall her calling out Christopher's name last night when I was making love to her!"

Emily looked at him in disgust and said, "No wonder you and Lorelai get along so well. You're every bit as crude as she is."

"I'm just stating a fact," he said pointedly. "I'm the one that she chooses to be with and I know that burns you ass, but I don't care! Lorelai and I are getting married and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"

"We'll see about that. She was engaged once before and you saw how that worked out. I just have to wonder what you did to get her say yes to your marriage proposal. I imagine it has to do with the timing of it. I must say it was rather clever of you to do it when she was upset and vulnerable over this situation with Rory. I'm quite sure that she wouldn't have said yes, had she been thinking clearly. I'm sure once she's had time to think things out, she'll call it off, just like she did with that teacher."

"If you're so sure of that, then why did you come here, checkbook in hand, ready to pay me off to get out of town?"

"Just trying to hurry things along, instead of waiting for her to wake up and realize what a mistake she's making. I think we both know that the fact that's she's with you is just one more of her rebellions against me. Your proposing to Lorelai in a moment of weakness was rather brilliant though. I have to give you credit for that."

"My relationship with Lorelai has nothing to do with you and your assumption that our engagement is a result of her falling out with Rory or her fight with you is completely untrue. For the record, she's the one who proposed to me, not the other way around, so that pretty much shoots that whole theory in the ass!" The truth was he _had_ wondered if her proposing to him when she did was because she was reaching out for something to hold onto when she thought she was losing Rory, but after their talk this morning when she'd told him what had prompted the proposal, he no longer had any doubts about her feelings for him.

"What?"Emily said, clearly shocked by this. "_She_ proposed?"

"Yeah, she did," Luke said with a smile as he vividly recalled the night they'd gotten engaged and their impromptu celebration in the gazebo.

"I suppose you let her buy her own ring too," Emily said snarkily.

"No, I bought the ring. I picked it out myself and paid cash for it. You see, Emily, that's the thing. You picked the completely wrong tactic here." He pulled his own checkbook out of his back pocket where he'd stowed it earlier after writing the check for the house. He opened it to the last page of the register and showed her the balance. "As you can see by the balance there, I've got plenty of money myself and I don't need yours. And that balance is after buying your daughter a very expensive engagement ring and writing a thirty-thousand dollar check today for the down payment on the house I'm buying for her."

"You're buying her a house?"

"That's right. We're going to need a bigger place when we get married next month."

"Next month? You're getting married that soon? Aren't you rushing things a bit? Afraid she'll change her mind if you don't get her to the altar fast?"

"Not a bit," he said confidently. "Actually, it was her idea to get married this soon."

"I see," she said. She was silent for a moment, trying to think of a way out of this. "So there's no way to talk you out of this?"

"What did you honestly think was going to happen here, Emily? Did you think that you'd just offer me a big bucket of money and that that would be enough to make me abandon the woman I love and my responsibility to our unborn child?"

"Your what?" she said looking as if she'd been slapped. "So you did get her pregnant."

"Yeah, we got the news this morning. I thought Richard would have told you about it by now. He's known since lunchtime."

"No, I haven't talked to Richard since this morning. What do you plan to do about it?"

"Just what I am doing," Luke answered. "I bought her a house and we're making wedding plans for June 25th. I told you I'm going to marry her whether you like it or not."

"Over my dead body," she retorted with a look of contempt on her face.

"Do I _have_ to kill you?"He replied back with a sneer.

"Is that a threat?"

"No, it's not. I've never hurt a woman in my life and I never plan to. My father taught me better than that, but I'll tell you something right now. If you do anything to hurt Lorelai or put my child at risk, I just might change my mind. She's already emotional over this thing with Rory and the last thing she needs right now is more stress piled on her. I'm going to do you a favor and not tell Lorelai about your pathetic attempt to buy me off. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a dinner for my fiancée to finish." He turned back to the over and opened the door again to check on the lasagna, leaving her stewing.

Emily looked around the room and took in everything that Luke had set up, the flowers, the candles and the bottle in the ice bucket. "This is quite the seduction scene you've got set up here. Are you that desperate?" she said unable to resist getting one more dig in knowing that she was fighting a losing battle.

He turned around and gaped at her. "You're unbelievable! Do you honestly think I need all of this to get her into bed? Trust me; I've never had any trouble getting a woman to sleep with me, especially Lorelai. In fact, we spent the night together on our first date, which was all her idea by the way. You should have heard her begging for it." Luke didn't normally like to talk about his private life with anyone except Lorelai, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to turn the tables on Emily after she'd assumed that he'd just accept her bribe and leave quietly.

"You're disgusting. The very idea of you putting your filthy hands on my daughter sickens me."

"Lorelai doesn't agree. She likes it when I touch her. She likes to talk dirty in bed too. You wouldn't believe some of the language she uses when we're alone. She likes to be teased and occasionally she even likes it a little rough." He knew he'd gone too far, but he didn't care. He'd had enough of Emily and her attitude toward him. He was determined to put her in her place once and for all.

"Oh my God," She gasped disturbed by the imagery that Luke's comments had placed in her head.

"I don't know what your problem is with me, but I'm done discussing this with you. You hate me! I don't understand why when I've never done anything to you, except have the nerve to fall in love with your daughter. You don't know me, but you hate me all the same. In fact, you hate me so much that you'd rather see your only daughter struggling as a single mother again than marry me. You've made that very clear."

"Oh, I know you. Or at least I know your type, especially after hearing you talk about my daughter that way."

"My type? Just what the hell does that mean?"

"The type who'll do anything to have his way with a woman," she answered haughtily.

"You're completely cracked! If that's all I wanted from Lorelai, I'd have been gone a long time ago, but I'm not one of those guys who are out to just get some and get gone. I've never been that way! I'd rather sleep alone that just have sex with some random woman. Casual sex has never been a turn-on for me. I want a real relationship and that's what I have with Lorelai. I'm beyond caring what you think about me! I'm in love with your daughter and make no mistake about it, I _am _going to marry her whether I have your approval or not! I have Richard's approval and that's enough for me."

"What makes you think that he approves of this absurd relationship anymore than I do?"Emily asked incredulously.

"Because he came to Stars Hollow today to tell me that he approved and also to warn me that you were up to something. I imagine he didn't think it would be anything as nutty as this though."

"What? Richard was here?" She was stunned. She thought he'd been at work all day. What was he doing coming to Stars Hollow and offering this heinous man his approval for destroying their daughter's life?

"How do you think he knew already that Lorelai's pregnant?"

"I don't believe this!"

"Believe it, Emily. This wedding is going to happen with or without your involvement. For Lorelai's sake, I'd rather it be with you involved. As much as you've done to hurt her over the years, you're her mother and she loves you. It's interesting to me that she and I were talking about this just this morning after we found out about the baby. She was insisting that you should be kept out of our kid's life and I was the one trying to talk her into giving you another chance. Then you come here and pull an asinine stunt like this."

"Did you mean what you said about not saying anything to her about it?"

"Yes, I did. Knowing about something like this would only hurt her and I don't want to cause her anymore pain. She's had enough of that from you." He turned back to the open oven door and pulled out the pasta just as he heard Lorelai's key in the door.

"Luke, are you here?"Lorelai called out.

"In the kitchen," he answered as he closed the oven and turned it off.

Lorelai dropped her purse and keys on the entry table and entered the kitchen. "Wow, something smells good in here."

Luke smiled and said, "Lasagna and garlic bread, homemade."

"You're so good to me," she said as she greeted him with a lingering kiss much to her mother's dismay. "Mmmm, I missed you today."

"What are you talking about? You were at the diner twice today, so it's not like you didn't see me."

"Yeah, but the place was completely packed both times, so I didn't get to spend any quality time with you."

"Well, we've got tonight, not to mention the rest of our lives to spend quality time together," he said with a pointed look directed at Emily.

Lorelai turned the direction Luke had glanced and noticed her mother standing there for the first time. "Hi, Mom, what are you doing here?"

"I was just paying Luke a visit, getting to know my future son-in-law a little better," Emily said, hoping that Luke would keep his word about not saying anything regarding her attempted bribery.

"Really?"Lorelai said looking at her mother suspiciously.

"Yeah," Luke answered before Emily had the chance to say anything. "I think we're really started to understand each other."

"Yes, we understand each other perfectly," Emily replied glaring at Luke as if he were a bug.

"Your mother was just leaving, weren't you, Emily? Didn't you just say you needed to get home?"He asked her with a stern look daring her to challenge him.

"Oh…yes…I really should be going if I'm going to be home in time to have dinner with your father. I'll see you on Friday."

"We'll be there," Luke said indicating that he wasn't planning on going anywhere despite her objections.

"Enjoy your dinner," Emily said as she headed for the door not wanting to press her luck with Luke.

"So, what was that all about, really?"Lorelai asked after her mother had left.

"Just like she said," Luke answered noncommittally. "We were getting to know each other a little better."

"I don't know, Luke. The tension in this room was thick enough to cut with a knife when I walked in. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah, it's fine. Your mother just got under my skin a little, but everything's fine. We got a chance to really clear the air. I don't want to talk about your mother anymore. What I'd like to do is have dinner with my beautiful fiancée and do a little celebrating." He pulled the bottle from the ice bucket and poured them each a glass, handing one to her.

"Luke, I can't drink. The baby," Lorelai said.

"I know that. Relax, it's sparkling apple cider."

"You're so thoughtful," she said and kissed him softly. "So, what should we drink to?"

"To our future," he answered holding up his glass.

"To our future," she repeated as she clinked her glass against his and took a sip. "Wow, this is pretty good for having no alcohol in it."

"I'm glad you like it. I remember you saying at lunchtime that you were having a wicked craving for apples and since you can't drink and I can't stand champagne, I thought this would make a good substitute."

"It's perfect." She looked around the room and noticed the flowers and candles. "I can't believe you did all this," she gushed as she put her glass down on the table and bent over to smell the flowers.

"I just wanted to let you know how happy I am about everything. You, me, the baby, the house, everything," he said as he set his own glass down and slipped his arms around her waist from behind.

She leaned against him for a moment, reveling in the feel of his arms around her. She turned just enough to look into his eyes and said, "I love you."

"I love you too," he replied and leaned in to kiss her. She turned a little more and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him in to deepen the kiss as she pressed her body to his longing to be closer to him. The moment was interrupted by the grumbling of her stomach. Luke chuckled as he broke the kiss. "We'd better get you fed." He turned back to the stove and filled two plates with food and he and Lorelai sat down at the table together and began to eat.

"I gotta tell you," Lorelai said. "A girl could get spoiled by this kind of treatment. Dinner, flowers, candlelight, fake champagne, it's nice."

"Good, I plan to keep on spoiling you, though I can't guarantee this exact kind of thing every night for the rest of our lives."

"I don't care as long as every night is spent with you. I don't want us to spend another night apart."

"I agree," he said with a smile.

"In fact, I was thinking. We're gonna be married in a little over a month. Maybe it's time we moved in together. I mean, I know it's gonna be a while before we can get moved into the new house, but there's plenty of room for you to move in here until then."

"Are you sure you're ready to have me around all the time?"

"Yeah, I like having you around. We'll have to get used to living together once we get married, so why not start now. It's not like that much will change. We're together almost every night as it is. That is, unless you think it's too soon." She stared down at her plate hoping that she hadn't scared him.

He reached over, grasped her hand and said, "No, it's not too soon. In fact, we should have done it months ago. I don't know what we've been waiting for. I want to live with you. I want to go to bed with you every night…"

"Dirty," she said with a giggle.

He glared at her and continued,"… and wake up next to you every morning."

"Good, I want that too."

"Good."

With that decided, they continued their meal talking about their respective days, Lorelai filling Luke in on the tentative wedding plans that she and Sookie had started on and Luke telling Lorelai more of the details of his argument with Taylor and the resulting conversation with her father. When they finished eating, Luke rose from the table and began to clear the dishes before Lorelai stopped him.

"Those can wait," she said with a sly smile.

"Did you have something else in mind?"

"Yeah, I want to go upstairs and finish what we started before my growly stomach so rudely interrupted." She reached for him and kissed him hungrily wanting to reignite that sparks that had started earlier.

Luke broke away breathlessly and said, "Lorelai, wait."

"What's the matter? Don't you want to?" she asked a little disappointed. "because earlier I thought you wanted it as much as I do, unless you were hiding your trusty spatula in your pocket."

"It's not that I don't want to. I'm just not sure that we should. I mean, the baby…"

"The baby is fine," she said. "We made love last night before we knew about it and the baby was still here this morning when I took that test."

"But are you sure it's safe? I won't hurt you?"

"No, you won't hurt me. Like you said, we've got a lot to celebrate and I want to continue that celebration in our bed." She kissed him again and this time he responded by taking her hand and leading her up the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

Richard walked into an almost empty house that evening. The only other person there was the newest in a long line of maids that his wife would soon dismiss for some tiny infraction. He sighed. He'd so wanted to share the newspaper article with her that proved that their daughter was a success, not to mention it also spoke highly of her future husband and his talents. He decided to take a walk to the pool house and share it with Rory first. He was sure she'd be just as thrilled as he was. After all, Lorelai had once told him that Rory loved Luke. He knocked on the glass door and heard Rory inviting him in.

"Rory?"He said as he tentatively opened the door.

"Hi, Grandpa, Whatcha got there?" she asked indicating the newspaper clipping in his hand.

"This is the most amazing thing that I've ever read and I wanted to show it to you," he said his face lit up with pride.

"The most amazing thing, huh? That's pretty big considering how much you read and you've read all the classics."

"This is better than any of the classics out there," he said as he handed it to her. "Apparently the _New York Times _food critic read the article in _American Travel _about the Dragonfly and decided to pay the inn a visit."

"You're kidding?"

"No, I'm not. Go on, read it."

"If it's a good review, I'm sure Sookie will be tickled pink."

"I'm not so sure she will be," her grandfather said. "The review isn't about her. It appears he made his visit while Sookie was on maternity leave and Luke was filling in for her."

"Really? So what does it say?"She asked warily, not sure she wanted to read it now. While she personally loved Luke's food, not everyone felt the same way and that kind of cooking was a little fancy for him.

"Just read it," he said a little impatiently wanting to share his elation with someone that he knew would appreciate it.

"Ok, ok," Rory said as she sat down and began to read. "Oh my God," she said as she got halfway through it and continued reading. "Oh my God!" she said with even more excitement as she got to the end of it. "It's a rave! Not just one, but two! This is so amazing. I bet Mom must be thrilled!" She felt a twinge of sadness as she thought about her mother and the fact that they hadn't spoken to each other in a week and that her mom hadn't even tried to call her and find out how she was doing. They'd never gone this long without talking.

"I'm not sure your mother even knows about it. She's never been one for reading the _Times."_

"True," she agreed. "Well, someone has to tell her about it. She'll be so proud of Luke. I mean, this is the _New York Times _food critic and he loved Luke's food so much at the inn that when he found out Luke was only a substitute he paid a visit to the diner to try out the food there. This is incredible. I mean, I've been eating at _Luke's _for years so I always knew that his food was good, but it's nice that he's finally getting some recognition for it."

"Your mother should be quite proud of herself as well," he said still filled with an overwhelming sense of pride in his daughter's accomplishments. "This speaks very highly of the inn too."

"Wow," Rory said. "I'll bet Luke hasn't got a clue about this either. It's not like a big city food critic goes out of his way to review a small-town diner very often."

"Very true," he said. "I believe the phrase 'hidden talent' was how the critic described his cooking skills. This would explain why the diner was so busy today when I went to see Luke in Stars Hollow."

"You saw Luke?" Her heart leapt at the thought, wondering what was going on in his life and her mother's. "Did you see Mom too? How's she doing? Is she ok? What's going on in her life?"

"No, I didn't see your mother," Richard said sadly realizing that Rory and her mother still weren't speaking and it was entirely his fault. "She hasn't contacted you?" He wondered if that meant that she didn't know that the man they were just speaking so highly of was very soon going to be her step-father. He imagined that she didn't since the engagement had just happened. He thought she had a right to know, but he wasn't certain he should be the one to tell her. That kind of news should come from Lorelai. He was certain that she didn't know that she was going to have a new sibling as he'd only found out today by accident.

"No," she said in a melancholy tone.

"Perhaps we should call her and tell her about this. I'm sure she'd like to know about it."

"You can if you want to. If Mom wanted to talk to me, she would've called by now. She knows where I am." She was hurt that her mother hadn't bothered to contact her in any way since she'd moved into the pool house to even ask about her life.

"The phone works both ways, Rory," he pointed out. He realized now his huge mistake in coming between mother and daughter, though it really hadn't been his intention to drive a wedge between them. He'd simply wanted to help his distraught granddaughter.

"I know that, but she's the one who told me I couldn't come home for the summer so I'm guessing that her life with Luke is more important than her life with me."

"Come now, Rory, you know that isn't true. Your mother loves you and only wants what's best for you. She's concerned about the choices you're making with your life. She doesn't want to see you making a decision that you'll regret."

"Well, when did she become Grandma all of a sudden?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"She's always complaining about how Grandma tries to interfere in her life and won't let her make her own decisions without passing judgment and now she's doing the same thing to me. Every time I do something she doesn't approve of, she bails on me." She thought back to the fight they'd had a year ago when she'd slept with Dean and the disappointed look on her mother's face.

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, Rory. The decision to drop out of Yale and move in with us is the only thing you've done that I know of that she disapproves of and I don't think your mother is 'bailing' on you."

"You don't know everything about my life, Grandpa," she said not wanting to mention how upset her mother was when she'd found out about her losing her virginity to Dean while he was still married. "And for the record, I didn't drop out of Yale. I'm just taking some time off."

"If you say so," he said skeptically, wondering if Luke was right and she had no plans to return to school. After all, Rory had been at their house for five days and hadn't yet made any effort to find a job or do anything productive. All she'd done was talk about decorating the pool house with Emily.

"I do say so," she said not entirely convinced of it herself. "I will go back eventually. I just need some time to figure things out."

"Ok. Why don't you join us for dinner tonight? That big house is rather empty with just the two of us and I'm sure your grandmother would love to see you."

"That sounds nice. I'll be there," she said with a nod. "Oh, here," she added trying to hand him back the newspaper clipping. "I'm done reading this if you want it back."

"No, that's quite alright," he said. "I made several copies of it after I saw it."

"Ok, I'll keep it then. I guess I'll see you at dinner."

"I'll be going now and let you have your privacy," he said and headed for the door. He glanced back at her for a moment as she began to re-read the article and shook his head, wondering what was really going on in her mind.

Luke and Lorelai lay contentedly wrapped in each other's arms post-lovemaking both grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Luke was thinking about the events of the evening and the sheer nerve of his future mother-in-law thinking that he was the kind of man who would allow himself to be bought. He wished there were some way that he could convince her that he truly loved Lorelai and wanted nothing more in life than to make her happy. Her happiness meant more to him than his own. He just wished he could get her mother to see that. He intended to keep his word to Emily and not say anything about the real reason for her impromptu visit to Stars Hollow. It would only hurt Lorelai to know that her mother would stoop so low and the last thing he wanted to do was cause her any pain. He'd seen enough of the relationship between Emily and Lorelai over the years to know that even though she said that she didn't care what her mother thought of her, it really hurt her deeply when her mother made her scathing remarks and showed blatant disapproval in her life choices. His thoughts were interrupted by Lorelai's voice.

"So, I gotta say I'm impressed with the whole romantic dinner thing you set up," she said with a blissful sigh as she kissed his bare chest and snuggled a little closer using him as a pillow.

"I'm glad you liked it," he said with a smile and kissed the top of her head while lightly stroking her back.

Lorelai glanced up at him adoration shining in her eyes and said, "Have I told you lately how happy you make me?"

"No, but I kind of got the memo when you were screaming at your parents last night. Just so you know, you make me happy too,"

"So, I've noticed. I'm totally ruining your town-crank reputation."

"I'll get over it," he said with a chuckle. "I'm just happy that you're happy."

"I am. I mean, we still have to figure out how to work out this thing with Rory and my parents, but as far as our life goes, I'm crazy happy. About you, our wedding, baby Danes here, the house, all of it."

"Speaking of your parents and the baby, there's something I haven't told you about their visits today. I don't want you to get all freaked out, but I think you should know everything that happened today so you're prepared Friday night, cause it's bound to come up." That wasn't entirely true. He had no intention of telling her everything about her mother's visit.

"That sounds bad. What is it? What did my insane mother do this time?" She looked at him worriedly, hoping that her fears about her mother's visit were wrong. The way that she and Luke had been glaring at each other when she'd walked in had told her that they was more going on than either one of them was telling her.

"Nothing," he lied not wanting her to know the extreme lengths her mother had gone to in order to destroy their happy life together.

"It didn't seem like nothing. It seemed like a definite something."

"It's not an important something. Your mother and I just laid out some ground rules for our future," he said. That at least was the truth. He had set Emily straight on his future plans for their lives and how she fit into the equation. He felt a little guilty for not telling Lorelai the whole truth, but in his heart he knew it was better this way. He wasn't going to be the reason that her already tenuous relationship with her mother was completely severed. While he had no desire himself to spend quality time with Emily, she was still Lorelai's mother and despite all the bad, he knew that they loved each other as a mother and daughter should, even if neither knew the appropriate way to show it.

"What kind of ground rules?"

"That's between me and your mother. That's not what I wanted to tell you anyway."

"Then what is it?"

"Your parents know about the baby," he said.

"You told them? Are you insane?"

"No, I didn't tell them, exactly. Your dad was in the soda shop when I kind of blurted it out to Taylor."

"Wait, Taylor knows? It'll be all over town by tomorrow morning," she said.

"Not if Taylor knows what's good for him," Luke replied. "Anyway, to get back to the point, I didn't know your dad was in the shop when I was talking to Taylor."

"How did he take it? I mean, it must not have been too bad. Your head's still attached to your body and as I just found out, all vital parts are still intact," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah, I was surprised. He really didn't say too much about the baby part. It actually seemed like he was happy about the idea of being a grandpa again."

"Wow," she said a little surprised, but also proud of her dad for his restraint. She vividly recalled that he'd wanted to throttle Christopher when she was sixteen after finding out that she was pregnant the first time. "He actually seemed happy?"

"He did," Luke confirmed. "Your mother not so much, though. We got into a little argument about our future plans and I kind of accidentally told her about it. I just assumed that since your dad already knew, that he'd have told your mother. It turns out he hadn't."

"What was her reaction?"

"Pretty much like you'd expect. She looked at me as if I were some kind of deviant, but I wouldn't have expected anything different from her. On the plus side, though, at least it's out there now so that'll be one less thing to worry about on Friday."

"Except for the fact that Rory doesn't know yet," she said. "I mean, we haven't even told her about the engagement yet, let alone the baby."

"You still haven't talked to her?" Luke asked in alarm.

"I've tried calling her cell non-stop since the night we got engaged, but I keep getting her voicemail. I think she's dodging my calls. I wish she'd answer her phone just once even if it's just to yell at me, then I could at least tell her about it. I hate it that I'm making plans to marry my best friend in the world and I can't share it with my other best friend. I want her to be a part of our new family life."

"I want that too," Luke said. "You know, you and Rory have always been like family to me. I hate it that you two aren't talking to each other."

"No, really?"She said sarcastically. "I didn't get that last night during your rant at me and my parents about how stupid it was that we're not talking, but _now _I get it that you hate it too."

"Smart ass," he grumbled. They were silent for a moment as they both worried about the upcoming dinner and the tension that was bound to arise at the elder Gilmore house. Luke was the first to break the silence by saying, "The kitchen's a mess. I should really get down there and get it cleaned up." He started to extricate himself from his fiancée's arms.

"No, I'll get it," Lorelai replied. "You cooked. You shouldn't have to clean up too." She crawled out of bed, reached for the blue flannel shirt she had hanging on the bedpost and slipped it on over her bare body.

"No," He countered. "You should rest. I know from experience with Liz that pregnant women need to rest more." He got out of bed himself and reached for his discarded boxers and pulled them on.

"You went to all the trouble of making me a nice dinner so we could have a special celebratory night together. The least I can do is help you clean up."

"Fine. You win," he said as he finished getting dressed in his usual sleepwear of t-shirt and sweat pants.

When they got downstairs, Luke went straight to the stove and began to transfer the leftover lasagna into a smaller container while Lorelai cleared the table and began making dishwater. She loaded their dinner plates into the sink and picked up the glasses and utensils. It was then that out of the corner of her eye she saw Emily's balled up check on the floor by the back door. She walked over to pick it up nearly crashing into Luke who'd moved to put the leftovers in the refrigerator. She unfurled the paper in her hand to see what it was and a sinking feeling struck in the pit of her stomach as she realized why Luke had been so reluctant to talk about her mother's visit and exactly what they'd talked about. Tears filled her eyes as she saw her mother's neat handwriting against Luke's bold print. "Luke, what the hell is this? Please tell me it's not what I think it is," she pleaded a pained look on her face. "Please tell me that my mother didn't try to buy you off and you just forgot to tell me about it." Luke turned to face her with pain in his own eyes at seeing the devastated look on her face. He felt a tightening in his chest and was kicking himself for not picking up that awful check from where Emily had thrown it earlier. He didn't know what to say to her to make this any better and he hated that she'd found it. This was exactly what he'd been trying to avoid by not telling her about it. "Luke, answer me, Dammit! I wanna know what my mother was trying to do here. How much money did she offer you to leave me? Did you turn it down because it wasn't enough? If she'd have offered you more, would you have accepted it and bailed on me and our kid?" The tears were now streaming down her face. She couldn't hold them back any longer.  
Luke looked at her in astonishment. "How can you even ask me that? Do you think there's enough money in the world to make me leave you? Our lives are finally starting to come together here and I just told how happy I am about that, how happy I am about the house and the baby and our wedding."

"But would you have taken her up on it if there wasn't a baby? You are Mr. Responsible, after all, but I don't want to feel like you have to stick around or that you have to marry me and buy that house just because you got me pregnant. I've raised one kid on my own. I can do it again."

"NO! I wouldn't have taken her up on it, regardless of the baby! In case you've forgotten, I said yes to your proposal like two seconds after you asked me and I was trying to buy the house for us before the baby was even conceived. I've thought about marrying you and having a family with you long before we were even together. Ever since you told me about your dream where we were married and expecting twins! Thinking about that dream drove me crazy thinking about the possibilities. I know I don't say the words enough, but I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you! You have no idea how happy I am that the woman I love more than anything in this world is having my baby and I want to be there every step of the way in this kid's life! You're not the only one who wants that 'whole package' deal here! I want it all with you and I'm happy that we're on our way toward having all of that!"

"Happy? You don't look very happy to me right now."

"I'm not happy at the moment because you're not happy. This is why I didn't tell you about it. I knew that your mother's actions would only hurt you and I'd do anything in the world to keep you from being hurt! Seeing you hurting makes me hurt and I was trying to protect you!" He reached his arms out to her longing to comfort her, to hold her, to do anything that it took to erase the pain in her eyes.

She pulled back from him abruptly. "Don't touch me! I can't believe that you would keep something like this from me!"

"I told, you I was trying to protect you from this!"

"I'm a big girl, Luke. I've been taking care of myself for a long time and I don't need you to protect me!"

Luke looked at her as if she'd slapped him. "You don't need me? Fine, Miss Independent! I'm outta here!" He stalked through the back door and slammed it behind him! Lorelai sank to the floor and like her mother had done earlier, balled up the check and threw it across the room. She pulled her knees up to her chest and sobbed as she realized she'd lost everything that meant anything to her all because of her mother.

Rory sat on the couch in the living room of the Gilmore house chatting animatedly about the newspaper article that highly praised the Dragonfly and Luke's cooking skills when Emily stalked through the front door muttering under her breath.

"The nerve of that man," she was saying. "How dare he tell me to go to hell? Just who does he think he is?"

"Who," Rory asked.

"That hideous man you're mother's so obsessed with. He's nothing but a crude, uneducated loudmouth!" She turned her venom on her granddaughter. "And how could you not tell us that your mother's engaged to him? What were you thinking about? Didn't you think that was the kind of thing her parents ought to know about?"

"What?"Rory said in astonishment.

"Emily," Richard said in a warning tone, trying to indicate that Rory didn't know about the engagement.

"I'll deal with you in a minute," she snapped at her husband. She was not at all thrilled that he'd made a trip to Stars Hollow behind her back. "I'm waiting for an answer, Rory. We took you into our home and you still kept a secret like this from us. Is this how you repay us?"

"Grandma, I don't know what you're talking about," Rory said. "Are you telling me that Mom and Luke are engaged?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Your mother tells you everything, even things that a mother should never tell her child! You can't honestly expect me to believe that she didn't tell you about this?"

"I don't know what to tell you, Grandma. Mom didn't tell me anything. You can believe or not, but Mom and I haven't talked since I moved in here!" She sighed deeply hurt that her mother hadn't shared this kind of news with her. Did she think she wouldn't be happy about it? She should know better. She'd always loved Luke like a father and would be thrilled to have him as her step-dad.

"I don't believe that, Rory. The next thing you know, you'll be telling me you didn't know that your mother's pregnant again!"

"What," Rory said again. "Mom's pregnant? How did this happen?"

"How do you think? Your mother was being irresponsible as usual."

Richard walked over to his wife made an attempt to reach for her to calm her down. "Emily, let's take a minute to talk about this before you go attacking Rory."

"Don't touch me," she snapped. "I'm not exactly thrilled with you right now? What the hell were you thinking going to see that man? Please, tell he was lying when he said you gave him your blessing for this ridiculous marriage!"

"No, he's not lying. I had a talk with Luke today about his and Lorelai's future and he's serious about her and about taking responsibility for their child. He even bought her a beautiful house. I saw it."

"He bought her a house," Rory said quietly, astounded at all the information that was being thrown at her tonight.

"Yes, Rory, he did," her grandfather answered. "A very nice house too. It's right across the town square from the diner."

"That's the Twickham house," Rory said unable to believe what she was hearing. There were major changes going on in her mother's life and she hadn't bothered to tell her about any of them. "Look, thanks for the invite, Grandpa, but I think I'm gonna take a rain check on dinner," she said as she left before the tears that filled her eyes could fall.

Emily turned on her husband after Rory had left and said, "I cannot believe that you would tell that reprehensible man that you're ok with him marrying into our family. Why would you do that?"

"Because, Emily, it _is _ok with me. Luke loves Lorelai and he wants to be with her. More importantly, she wants to be with him. They're having a child together. Aren't you the least bit happy about being a grandmother again?"

"No," she said hotly. "Not when that man is the child's father. Can you imagine? With his foul mouth, that poor child will be talking like a sailor by the time it's three years old!"

"Emily, I think you're exaggerating."

"No, I'm not, Richard! You didn't hear the vulgar things he said to me tonight! I was absolutely shocked that this is the kind of man that Lorelai's planning to tie herself down to for the rest of her life!"

"What were you even doing there? Please tell me that you didn't do something stupid that would cause Lorelai to turn her back on us again!"

"I only did what any concerned mother would do! I only want the best for her and that man is not it!"

"You're wrong, Emily! What's best for her is to be with the father of her unborn child! She walked away from her chance for a family when she was sixteen and I'm not going to let her do it again! Luke is not the child that Christopher is! He's responsible and hard-working, not to mention the fact that he's made some wise investments and has some assets to his name!"

Emily laughed at this. "You can't be serious! I saw the state of his assets when he shoved his checkbook in my face tonight! There's no way with the limited amount of money he has at his disposal that he'll be able to properly provide for Lorelai and their child the way that they should be provided for."

Richard shook his head at his wife's snobbery and said, "Wrong again, Emily. You should have seen the diner when I was there today. There wasn't an empty seat in the place, plus he's got income from the soda shop next door since he owns the building. When you add what Lorelai makes at the inn, the two of them will be more than capable of living a quite comfortable life."

"A 'comfortable' life isn't good enough for Lorelai! She shouldn't have to worry about money ever! She shouldn't have to work at all to support herself and her child."

"That inn was Lorelai's dream and it's wildly successful as is Luke's restaurant! Look at this!" he said as he reached for the newspaper clipping he'd been carrying around all day. "Read it!"

Emily took the clipping from him and began to read, her eyes growing wider with every sentence she read. When she'd finished, she looked up at her husband and said, "This if wonderful that the inn's getting more publicity."

"Did you notice the part where that lauded Luke as well? It seems his cooking was quite the hit with the critic, so much so, in fact that he felt compelled to try the food at the diner, as well." He was hoping that sharing this with her would be the key to changing her opinion about their daughter's future husband and allow her to gain some respect for him.

Richard's hopes were soon dashed when his wife said haughtily, "It's just like a man like that to garner some public acclaim for himself by riding on someone else's coattails."

"Why are you so determined to hate him? He's never done anything to you!"

"Don't you think getting Lorelai pregnant is enough? Not to mention the fact that he's using her business to make his own more successful! This only proves my point about him!"

"You're insane, Emily! Did you know that Lorelai wouldn't even have the inn if it weren't for the fact that Luke invested thirty-thousand dollars of his own money in it? If anyone's riding on someone's coattails, it is Lorelai who is riding on Luke's not the other way around. The way I look at it him helping out in the kitchen when he was needed was just another way of showing his love for Lorelai, not to mention that it was a very smart way to protect his investment!"

"I can't believe what I'm hearing! You were just as against this relationship as I was from the beginning, now you're singing his praises as if he's the second coming!"

"I was wrong to judge him before really knowing anything about him and so were you! He and Lorelai are going to be married very soon and I support them one-hundred percent."

"You're the one who's wrong! This marriage is not going to happen, no matter what you say! I will do anything in my power to stop it from happening. I want more for her, period!" She walked out of the house and slammed the front door behind her, determined to talk some sense into her daughter before it was too late.


	6. Chapter 6

Lorelai didn't know for sure how long it was that she'd been sitting there with her back against the kitchen door. It seemed like hours, but she didn't really know for sure how long it had been since the love of her life had walked out on her. The tears had subsided now, but she still felt the pain. Her nerves were raw and she felt as if her heart had been ripped out. She'd lost Rory, she'd lost Luke and her mother had caused both losses, though her father had admitted that he was just as much to blame for the Rory situation, but her mother had gone along with it. Her own mother had betrayed her and purposely tried to hurt her. She couldn't understand it. How could a mother purposely hurt her own child like that? She sighed as she realized that the only family she had left was the tiny life inside her. She gently placed her hand over her abdomen and said, "I've still got you. Don't worry, Little One, You and me, we're gonna make it. I won't let anything take you away from me." The words were barely out of her mouth when she felt a violent wave of nausea hit her. She made a mad dash up the stairs and into the bathroom, promptly heaving up the dinner that Luke had so thoughtfully prepared for her. At the thought of Luke and how he'd stormed out of her house tonight, the house that earlier in the evening they'd talked about sharing until their new house was ready, her stomach turned again. Midway through her vomiting, she heard the doorbell ring.

"Go away," she muttered as she hunched over the toilet again. The doorbell didn't stop and neither did her sickness. She was hoping that it would be Luke ringing the bell, but it didn't seem likely. He had a key, so he very rarely used the doorbell. She heard the faint sound of a key in the door and the front door opening. Her heart leapt at the thought that it might be Luke returning. The urge to hurl passed for a brief moment, giving her a little relief until she heard footsteps on the stairs that were much to light to be Luke's. Her stomach flipped again as the disappointment hit her, causing her to once again bend over the toilet. She felt a fresh batch of tears stinging her eyes as she feared the Luke wasn't coming back. She'd been too hard on him. She knew that he loved her, but she was afraid that her hurt and anger at her mother had chased him away for good this time. As she once again knelt over the toilet, she felt her hair being pulled back away from her face and a hand on her back. When the retching stopped she said quietly, "Thanks.' She looked up at her mother and added,"Now, get out!"

"Lorelai…"Emily began.

"I mean it, Mother!"Lorelai said angrily. "Get out!"

"No, I am not leaving until you and I have a talk," Emily said sternly to her daughter.

Lorelai slowly pulled herself off the bathroom floor and looked her mother in the eye, fury blazing in her own eyes. "There's nothing you could possibly have to say that I want to hear," she said as she pushed past her mother and into her bedroom.

Emily followed her relentlessly, the determined expression on her face changing to one of revulsion as she saw the discarded clothing scattered across the bedroom floor, much as she had the night before. "I have something I want to say to you and I don't care if you want to hear it or not!"

Lorelai whipped around to face her mother and said, "Were you not listening? I said I don't want to hear it! I've had enough of you and your disappointment with the choices that I make in my life."

"Lorelai, as your mother, I have a right to be concerned about the direction you're taking your life and I won't stand idly by and watch you throw away your whole life on a man who's not worthy of your time,"

"Who the hell do you think you are telling me that Luke's not worth my time? He's been nothing but good to me and to Rory, but you're too much of a damn snob to see what a good man he is!"

"If he's such a good man, where is he now? Where was he a few minutes ago when you were hunched over the toilet losing your dinner? Any decent man would be here for you while his child was making you sick."

"He's gone, ok?"Lorelai snapped heatedly. "He left me tonight! Are you happy? You got your way! Now, you can go home to your big fancy house and gloat about how happy you are that you once again destroyed the happiest relationship I've ever been in!"

"Don't you dare blame me for this! It's hardly my fault that you chose to get involved with a man who is completely unsuitable for you!"

"Luke is _not _unsuitable for me! He's perfect for me. He's the one person in my life who's always gone out of his way to make me happy and you drove him away! You and that insane attempt to buy him off!"

"He told you about that?" Emily seethed inwardly at the knowledge that he'd told Lorelai about despite his assurances that he wouldn't. It was clear the man couldn't be trusted to keep his word.

"No, he didn't! I found your stupid check on the floor! When I confronted him with it, we had the most awful fight and he bolted! Now, thanks to you, I'm looking at being a single mom again, which is the last thing I wanted! I was finally gonna do it right this time and get married and have a nice house and kids and a husband, something that I've wanted for a long time, but you blew that for me!"

"I will _not _take the blame for your break-up again! I did what I did out of concern for you! It's not my fault that you're once again pregnant out of wedlock because you couldn't have the good sense to take the proper precautions. Now you know firsthand the consequences of a drunken night of passion!"

"What the hell would you know about it? You weren't there!"

"No, thank God," she said as she cringed at the thought of how her unborn grandchild was conceived. "But you said yourself last night that the two of you had gotten tipsy at a party and failed to take the necessary precautions as a result of it."

"Well, so what? We were a little drunk that night, but that doesn't mean that this baby wasn't conceived in love! Luke loves me so much that he spent the entire night in New York, a city he hates, just to help me celebrate my success! That whole night was a celebration! We were so happy that night, just like we were today when we found out about the baby. You should have seen the look on his face when he found out that he's gonna be a dad! I've never seen him that happy and I've known him for more than a decade. We were both happy about the news until you came along and poisoned everything."

"_Please, _Lorelai," she said in disdain. "Who are you kidding? If he were that happy about it, why isn't he here now? Maybe he isn't the kind of man you'd like to think he is." She gestured to the clothing on the floor and the rumpled state of the bed and added, "What kind of man just takes what he wants from a pregnant woman then leaves her all alone?"

"God, you're unbelievable! Is that what you think happened here tonight? That Luke just came here to get laid and then bailed? He's not that kind of man. In fact, he wasn't even sure that we _should _make love tonight after finding out about the baby. I was the one who talked him into it and when he did make love to me, he was extremely tender and gentle because he was worried that he might hurt me or the baby! I was so happy! Now that's gone and you're to blame!"

"Lorelai, I-"

Lorelai cut her off. "I'm done with you!You won, Mom! That should be enough for you! Now, get out and stay out! I don't ever want to see you again!"

"What about dinner Friday?"

Lorelai couldn't believe her mother's nerve. She was hell-bent on destroying her happiness, yet still expected her to show up at Friday dinner as if nothing had happened. She thought for a moment before answering. She had no desire to spend an evening with Emily after what she'd done, but she reasoned that it may be the last chance she'd have to try to get through to Rory, since she wasn't returning her calls. "I'm still gonna be there, but I'll be there for Rory and nothing else! Don't even attempt to speak to me while I'm there! There's nothing you can say that can ever justify what you've done!"

"What have I done that was so wrong! I was merely trying to protect you!"

"I don't need your protection!"Lorelai shouted as she had at Luke earlier and another wave pain hit her as she remembered that those were the same words that had driven him away. "Besides that, this wasn't about protecting me! This was about protecting your precious reputation at the DAR and your stupid snotty country club, so you wouldn't have to tell all your friends that your daughter was with someone who doesn't fit into your high society world! You can spin this however you want in your own mind if it makes you feel any better, but the only thing you've done tonight is break up a family! I will never forgive you for that!"

"Lorelai…"

"Don't say another word, Mother. We're done! Over! Now I want you out of my house!"

"But…"

"OUT," she shouted with all the force she could muster with the crappy way she felt right now.

Emily started at the gruffness in her daughter's tone and turned on her heel leaving Lorelai alone again with her thoughts. She got into her car and sat there for a moment, not sure what to do next. She'd only heard her daughter speak to her that severely one other time and it was when she'd walked in on her yelling at Luke at the diner. Sure, they'd yelled at each other before, but not like this. Was it possible that Richard was right and that Lorelai was truly in love with the unshaven, unmannered lout who ran the local greasy spoon? She sighed as she thought of the argument she'd had with her husband. The last time they'd fought like that, they'd separated for several months. She didn't want that to happen again, but she wasn't quite ready to go home and face him. Clearly they couldn't agree at the moment on what was best for Lorelai. After hearing the news that Luke had left Lorelai she now had proof positive that she'd been right all along. She started her car and drove to the direction of her daughter's inn hoping they'd have a room for the night. She'd give both Richard and Lorelai time to calm down before approaching either of them again. She was sure once they'd both had time to think about things rationally, they'd all be able to work things out and be a real family again.

After her mother had left, Lorelai collapsed onto her empty bed in tears, crying over everything she'd lost. The pain was nearly unbearable. She had lost her daughter, her fiancée, her mother, and her dreams of a new life with the real family that she'd always wanted. She laid her head on Luke's pillow inhaling the masculine scent that still lingered on it and sobbed even harder her entire body wracked with spasms from the force of her grief. She cried until she couldn't cry anymore. She reflected on the smug look that had flashed across her snooty mother's face when she'd told her that Luke had left and couldn't take it anymore. She was not going to let her mother win this time. She and Luke had something special whether Emily could see it or not and she wasn't going to let the life she wanted slip through her fingers. She'd lost Luke once over her mother's meddling and she wasn't going to let it happen again. She and Luke were having a baby together and they were supposed to be getting married and building a life together. She flung herself from the bed and went to her closet, searching for her back-together-with-Luke dress, the pink sparkly one that had made Luke's eyes nearly pop out of his head when he'd seen her in it for the first time. It may have seemed a little silly to wear such a fancy dress for just going a few blocks away, but she hoped that Luke would get it. She'd do anything to show him how much she wanted to be with him. She was eve willing to get on her knees and beg for forgiveness if that's what it took. She giggled a little and added a mental "dirty" at the thought of getting on her knees. She'd do that too, willingly if that's what it took for her to prove her love for him. She has been ecstatic all day and she was insanely happy that she was having his baby and wearing his ring. She glanced down at the diamond on her hand and pictured a gold band sitting next to it. She couldn't wait for that day. She just hoped it wasn't too late.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke lay alone in his big empty bed unable to sleep. He couldn't get Lorelai's words out of his head. Maybe he'd made a mistake keeping this secret from her, but he'd only done it to avoid seeing her hurting like she was now. Still, he couldn't help but think that she was right. She'd always been fiercely independent and didn't need him to take care of her. It didn't stop him from wanting to though. He desperately wanted to take care of her and keep her safe. He rolled over onto his side coming face to face with the pillow she used on the nights she stayed there. It still smelled like her fruity shampoo. He sighed as he thought about how screwed up things had gotten. Just an hour ago, they were celebrating starting a new life together, making love and making plans for their future. He turned over again, unable to bear the taunting scent anymore. He grunted in frustration. This bed was just too damn big for him to sleep in alone. He'd bought it specifically for her when they'd first started dating to prove to her that he had room in his life for her. No other woman had ever shared it with him. He flipped over onto his back as memories filled his head. This was where they were the first time they'd made love, and where they'd made love after returning from the magazine party the night their baby was conceived. He'd been so happy that night. His heart had swelled with pride at her success with the Dragonfly. She'd reminded him repeatedly that she couldn't have done it without him, but he'd protested, telling her that it was all her. All he'd done was invest a little money in her future. She'd done all the really hard work. He had played nice that night so as not to embarrass her in front of all the bigwigs that were at that party. He shook hands with people that he'd never give the time of day to under normal circumstances. He'd laughed at their inane jokes, even though he much preferred the humor of the beautiful brunette at this side. He'd kept his cool as he'd watched other men flirt with her, knowing with certainty that he was the one she'd be going home with that night. He'd kept her manhattans coming with extra cherries just the way she liked them, while drinking harder stuff that he normally would so as not to cause her any embarrassment by being seen with a beer-guzzling nitwit. He hadn't realized how hard the alcohol had hit him until they were alone in the limo and he'd begun his rant about New York which had delighted her to no end. He'd been amazed in that moment that she'd actually chosen to be with him after seeing all the men she could have had at that party. She'd been sitting with her legs curled up on the seat, resting against his. He found himself unable to stop touching them. He loved her long legs, especially when they were wrapped around him while they were making love. When she'd kissed him, all his pretense of self-control had snapped and he'd taken her right there in the limo, not that she minded. She was just as excited by it as he was. It had never entered his alcohol-fogged mind that they were being reckless. He smiled a little at the memories, wondering if it was in that moment that their child had been made or if it had happened later in the night when they'd stumbled drunkenly into his apartment, tearing at each other's clothes, not even bothering to close the door behind them in their frenzy to make love again.

Luke finally gave up all pretense of trying to sleep and hauled himself out of bed, walking over to the sink to get himself a drink of water, scolding himself for walking away from her tonight when what he'd wanted to do more than anything was take her in his arms and comfort her. It had broken his heart seeing her looking so broken by her mother's betrayal. He'd want to kiss her tears away and tell unequivocally that he wasn't going anywhere, that all the money in the world wouldn't be enough for him to leave her and their baby. He was happy with her and was overjoyed that she was carrying his child. They had started a family just like he'd wanted. He couldn't wait until the day that they were married and she would be his forever. He was anxious to get to work on their new home to get it ready for them to live in. He wondered if she even still wanted it or if he'd have to break his promise to Taylor about backing out of the deal again. He gripped the edge of the sink tightly as he thought of the possibility that his dreams of a life with Lorelai were slipping away from him. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening behind him. He turned to see Lorelai standing there looking amazing in same dress she'd worn the night of their reconciliation date. He crossed the room in two long strides and pulled her to him crushing her mouth in a fierce kiss the way he'd done the night that Emily had first come to see him. He was elated when she responded eagerly by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in deeper. Without breaking the kiss, he backed her up a little reaching for the edge of the door and slamming it shut. He then backed her up a little further pressing her body against the door as he continued his assault on her mouth. When oxygen became a necessity, her reluctantly pulled away from her, looking longingly into her eyes.

"Luke, I'm sor-" Lorelai began but was cut off by Luke's mouth descending on hers again. She gasped in delight as he lowered his head and began feasting on her neck. When he raised his head again to look at her again through passion-glazed eyes, she tried again but was again cut off by his finger on her lips.

"Don't, Lorelai. Don't say you're sorry. I'm the one who should be sorry for keeping this secret from you."

"I get why you did it," she said as she softly kissed him. He responded immediately, turning what was meant to be a tender apology into a fiery explosion. He brushed aside the flimsy straps from her shoulders, dropping her dress to the floor and gasped as he realized she was wearing nothing underneath it, no bra, and no panties. "Now, you're overdressed," she said as she began tugging at the hem of his tee and he allowed her to pull it over his head. She then pushed down his sweatpants and his boxers and he kicked them away. Luke lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bed. She kicked her pink pumps off on the way and reveled in the fact that he still wanted her even though she'd been so horrible to him. He lowered her onto his bed and quickly joined her in it taking her in his arms again and showing her how sorry he was that she'd been so hurt tonight. While their earlier lovemaking had been slow and tender, this was anything but. This was fierce and passionate, fueled by the desperate need of two people in love to hang on to each other, both aware of what could have been lost tonight by their own stubbornness.

"I can't believe you walked through town dressed like that," he said in amusement while trying to catch his breath after their reunion union.

"Look who's talking. Your shoes are still on my bedroom floor, so you had to have walked through town barefoot," she said with a giggle as the imagery of that event played through her head. She snuggled into him, laying her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.

"That's a whole lot different than going commando," he said gruffly. "Not to mention that that dress is kind of flimsy."

"I didn't notice you complaining when you were taking it off of me. The second time you've done that with that particular dress. Don't you like the way I look in it," she teased.

"I love the way you look in that dress, but I love the way you look without it more," he said with a devilish grin.

"Pervert," she said.

"Other pervert," he retorted back, remembering an episode of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer _that she'd made him watch with her, knowing she'd get the reference.

She smiled warmly at his effort. "I can't believe you remembered that," she said in awe.

"Like a steel trap," he said tapping his head with his finger.

"Oh my God, two _Buffy _quotes in less than a minute," she said beaming at him.

"Well, you did make me watch the whole damn series with you," he pointed out. "Including that fruity musical one," he added with a grimace.

She giggled and began to sing, "I'm under your spell…"

"Stop," he said.

"Come on, that was classic. Vampires running around singing and dancing. It was hilarious! You even laughed at it at the time."

"Yeah, whatever," he said.

"Besides, I _am _under your spell," she said affectionately.

"I can't imagine why," he said. "I'm kind of a pain in the ass to have around."

"But you're _my _pain in the ass," she said with more confidence than she felt after the way he'd stormed out of the house tonight. "I mean, at least I hope you're still…"

"I am," he answered quickly allying her fears.

"Good. Let's agree then to never let Emily Gilmore come between us again." She was still furious with her mother, but she that only strengthened her resolve to make things work with Luke.

"Sounds like a plan," he said. "But let's amend it a little to never letting _anyone _come between us again."

"You got it, Babe," she agreed. "Uh-oh," she said as she pulled herself out of his arms and made a mad dash for the bathroom.

"Lorelai?" He frowned in confusion wondering why she'd bolted. He followed her into the bathroom to find her hunkered down over the toilet heaving violently. He rushed to her side and knelt by her side her scooping her hair away from her face and holding her steady while she once again emptied the contents of her stomach. "Are you ok?" he asked her when the vomiting had stopped.

"Just one of the many perks that go along with pregnancy," she muttered sardonically as she leaned her head against him.

"I'm sorry," he said as he stroked her bare back.

"What are you sorry for?"

"It's my fault that you're sick. If I hadn't gotten you pregnant, you wouldn't be feeling this way."

"Stop, Luke," she said looking up and meeting his guilty expression with a loving one. "I'm crazy happy that I'm having your baby. We both wanted this. The morning sickness is just one of the things that go along with it, although I've never understood why they call it that when it seems like it strikes anytime, day or night. That term had to have been invented by a man."

"How do you figure?"

"Because clearly it was thought up by someone who's never experienced it."

"Ahhh," he said nodding in understanding. "So, are you ok or do you need to sit here in case you throw up again?"

"I think it's done for now," she answered.

"Good," he said as he helped her up. She immediately reached for the extra toothbrush he kept on hand for her and her "crazy" cinnamon toothpaste that he didn't like. He lingered behind her just in case she needed him again.

"I'm ok, Luke," she said. "I just need to get this puke tasted out of my mouth. You can go on back to bed. You've got early deliveries in the morning. You don't want to keep your vendors waiting."

"Screw my vendors. If they have to wait, they have to wait. You're more important to me," he said firmly planting his hands on his hips. Lorelai laughed and nearly choked on a mouthful of toothpaste as she looked at his reflection in the mirror. "That probably would have sounded better if I weren't standing here buck naked," he said with a chuckle.

She spit into the sink. "I like you buck naked," She said with a mischievous grin. "I'd love it if you could be naked all the time."

"I don't think that'd work too well with trying to run a restaurant. It might even get painful when the grill splatters grease everywhere."

"Plus I'd have to start beating off other women with a stick if they knew what you hide under the flannel." She rinsed her toothbrush out and turned to face him. "It's better that I'm the only one who knows." She reached her hand up and tenderly stroked his stubbly face kissing him lightly on the lips.

"I love you," he said as he slid his arms around her waist. "I know I'm not great at getting the words out, but it's there."

"I know. You show me in so many ways how much you love me even when you don't say it and just so we're clear, I love you too. I don't say it as often as I should either, but I do love you and for what it's worth I'm sorry I went all crazy on you tonight."

"I know," he replied with a smile and pulled her closer just enjoying holding her for the moment, grateful that their argument hadn't put a permanent wall between them. "Come on, Crazy Lady. Let's get some sleep." He let go of her and placed a hand on the small of her back guiding her to the bed he'd bought just for her. They crawled under the covers together and fell into a blissful sleep wrapped in each other's arms.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory flung open the door to the pool house so hard that she was surprised she hadn't shattered the glass in it. How could her mother not have shared the biggest news of her life with her own daughter? They'd always shared everything. Her grandmother had been right, her mother had even shared things with her that a mother shouldn't, but it didn't bother Rory. She loved that she and her mom had always had that close of a bond. She groaned in frustration at the situation. Was her mom trying to punish her for moving in with her grandparents by not telling her? Was this some sort of payback for her going behind her mother's back and asking her grandparents for help? She didn't think her mother would ever be that petty with her. Sure, she'd seen her mother cut her parents off when she was mad at them, but she never thought she'd ever do that to her. Her hurt and anger got the better of her and she lashed out by kicking the wastebasket in the corner of the room, knocking it over unearthing the cell phone that she'd been missing since Friday night when she'd unpacked her belongings. She had frantically looked for it everywhere she could think of. She remembered now that she'd set it down on the end table that had been next to the wastebasket. She must have accidentally knocked it off of the table and into the wastebasket when she'd been unpacking. She picked it up and looked at it. As was to be expected, the battery was dead. She rummaged through a kitchen drawer until she found the charger for it and plugged it in, then powered it on. As soon as her phone had gone through its power cycle, the screen lit up, telling her that she had fifteen new messages. She dialed into her voicemail careful not to unplug it from the charger and listened to the first message, elated to hear her mother's voice on it.

"Rory, it's me. I know it's late and I know you're mad at me, but I have the most amazing news I wanna share with you. Please call me back as soon as you get this. It's important." She listened to the rest of the messages one by one, all from her mother. The messages were all pretty much the same, her mother pleading with her to call her back so that she could share her news with her. In the last message which had been left today her mother yelled at her for being stubborn and refusing to call her back. Rory set the phone back down and gripped the edge of the countertop, feeling guilty for ever thinking that her mother had purposely shut her out. She picked up the phone and dialed her home number hoping that it wasn't too late to fix things with her mom.


	7. Chapter 7

Emily awoke after spending a restless night in her room at the Dragonfly. She couldn't stop thinking about the fact that her daughter had kicked her out of her house over the man who'd abandoned her. Did Lorelai really think that a man who would dessert while she was pregnant was worth giving up her flesh and blood family for? She knew that her actions had hurt her daughter but she'd only done what she thought was best to secure her only daughter's future. If what Lorelai had said was true and Luke was gone for good, then she knew that her daughter would have a long road ahead of her being a single mother again, but that would be better than permanently tying herself to a man who had no decent family, no education and no ambition to better himself. She has to admit though, that if anyone could handle it. Lorelai could. After all, she'd done a wonderful job with Rory. Her pride would never allow her to admit it, but she was quite proud of Lorelai and what she'd accomplished.

She looked around the room as she climbed out of bed and marveled at homey décor. She'd done a beautiful job. She wondered if what her husband was true and that Lorelai wouldn't have been able to do all this without Luke. She highly doubted it. What did a man like that know about a business of this size when he was used to only running a cramped small-town diner? What she had even more trouble believing was that Luke had refused her offer but had left Lorelai anyway. What a fool that man was. He should have taken the money when he'd had the chance, then he'd at least have something to show for having yet another broken relationship. She picked up her purse, took her cell phone out of it and turned it on. She had five new messages. Her heart leapt, hoping that Lorelai had come to her senses now that she'd had a little time to think about things and had called to apologize. Her hopes were soon dashed as she listened to the messages and realized that they were all from Richard wondering where she was. She deleted all five of them. _Let him suffer, _she thought. He was being completely unreasonable about this whole situation. She couldn't wait to rub it in his face that the man he'd given his blessing to had let him down and that he'd been the one who was wrong about the man who'd gotten their daughter pregnant. She shuddered a little at the thought that her unborn grandchild would have a part of that man's DNA. She hoped that it wouldn't have an adverse effect on the poor innocent child. She decided not to let him stew after all. She dialed his private office number in order to bypass his secretary, unable to wait any longer to share her news and prove her husband wrong. He answered on the first ring.

"Emily, is that you," he asked in a desperate sounding voice.

"It's me," she answered.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded. "I've been out of my mind with worry. I've called everyone I know trying to find you."

"I'm at the Dragonfly. I just needed to get away to clear my head and have some time to think after our argument last night."

"You could have at least called to let me know where you were. If it weren't for talking to Luke, I wouldn't have even known that you were alive. He told me about your fight with Lorelai last night."

"What on earth possessed you to talk to that man?" _And how does he know already that Lorelai and I argued? _She added to herself. That had happened after he'd left. Surely Lorelai hadn't gone running back to him after their fight and begged him to take her back after he'd so heartlessly walked out on her.

"When you left you said you were going to try to talk to Lorelai so I call her house and when she wasn't there, I surmised that she must be at Luke's."

"I highly doubt that she was there. She told me when she was screaming at me that Luke had left her, so you have no need to call him in the future." She was still furious with her husband for offering his support to a man who was a completely inappropriate match for Lorelai.

"I'm sincerely sorry to hear that. They seemed quite happy together," he said with sadness in his voice hoping that there was still a way that they could work it out. He didn't want Lorelai to be hurt. "I hope you didn't have anything to do with that. I have to tell you that I don't approve of whatever it is you're doing. I don't know what you're up to, since you've been so secretive about it, but whatever it is, it can't be good. You should know better than to upset Lorelai. Adding any unnecessary stress to her during her pregnancy could have serious consequences. I don't suppose it even entered your mind that in doing so, you could be endangering the life of our unborn grandchild."

"Maybe then she'd be better off!"Emily snapped. "Then she wouldn't have to have any more connection to the man who broke her heart last night!"

"Emily, you can't be serious!"Richard was floored by his wife's callousness. "Do you honestly not care that the life of an innocent child is at stake here? I imagine if Luke and Lorelai actually have broken up, that she's heartbroken right now." He remembered vividly how hurt she'd been the last time she and Luke had split up. "Do you really believe that she needs to add the heartbreak of losing her child on top of that? You, of all people should know what a terrible loss that is. Are you so heartless that you don't care about that?"

"No, of course not," she replied impatiently. Richard should know better than to suggest such a thing. She remembered all too well how it felt to lose a child before it was even born. She'd had two miscarriages in the early years of her marriage before having Lorelai and the doctor had told her she shouldn't try again as she'd almost died bringing Lorelai into the world. That was why she was so determined not to let her only child miss out on anything that life had to offer and she felt that committing her life to a small-town man like Luke would severely limit her opportunities. "I wouldn't want to see her experiencing that kind of pain. I was merely suggesting that if she weren't pregnant, maybe she would see that Luke is not the man she should be with. She'd be able to move on with her life and get this ridiculous obsession with him out of her system."

"Emily, you need to get it through your head once and for all that whoever Lorelai chooses to be with is not up to us. She's an adult who is fully capable of making her own decisions in life as she's been doing since she was seventeen. Now, I don't know what happened between Luke and Lorelai last night, but I have no doubt from the conversation that I had with Luke yesterday that he's not going to just leave her, despite whatever she may have told you. Perhaps they just had an argument and he needed time to cool off. You know as well as I do how it is when two very stubborn people in a relationship argue. I believe that whatever they argued about, they will work out as long as you stay out of it."

"You act as though the man walking out on her is somehow my fault," she said incredulously.

"Isn't it, Emily? You went to see Luke yesterday after I told you to stay out of it and then you came home, screamed at Rory as if this were her fault, then you attacked me and stormed out of the house determined to make trouble for them. While I admit, I don't know exactly what happened, I do know your handiwork when I see it. Now, I strongly suggest that you leave Stars Hollow right now and return to Hartford where you belong. Our daughter's life is not yours to control and if you persist in trying to control her, you'll only drive her away, and then we'll never see her or our new grandchild."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Emily said and disconnected the call; sorry that she'd ever made it in the first place. Why couldn't her husband be on her side when she was only trying to look out for Lorelai? She tucked her phone back into her purse, straightened the clothing she'd slept in, wishing she had a change of clothes with her. She ran a brush through her hair trying to make herself decently presentable and left the room walking down the stairs toward the front desk where she found Michel saying good-bye to a couple who had just checked out.

"Thank you for choosing the Dragonfly and please come again," he said in his typical fake sincere voice that he used for dealing with guests. His smile faded once they'd left. "Imbeciles should be sterilized immediately," he muttered once they were out of earshot.

"Hello, Michel," Emily said with a bemused smile.

"Ah, Mrs. Gilmore," he said pleasantly. He'd always liked his boss' mother. She had a lot more class than her daughter. "This is a pleasant surprise. How lovely to see you."

"Why, thank you, Michel. Is my daughter around?"

"No," he said frowning once again. "She is once again shirking her responsibilities to her job as she has done many times since beginning her relationship with that lunkhead from the restaurant."

"She's not here? Where is she?"

"I haven't the faintest idea. All I know is that she's not here and that means that I'm stuck doing her work while she does who knows what with the diner man. You should talk to Sookie. She's the one who told me that your daughter wouldn't be coming to work today."

"Is she in the kitchen?"

"Where else would she be? It's not as though she's any good at handling the business end of running the inn. She leaves that up to Lorelai, who then leaves it to me."

Emily glared at Michel for a moment before turning and walking through the dining room and into the kitchen where she found Sookie busily preparing breakfast for the inn's guests, occasionally throwing a comment to her kitchen staff to make sure they were doing everything exactly the way she wanted it. "Hello, Sookie. How are you?"

"Oh, Hi Emily," Sookie replied. "If you're looking for Lorelai, she's not coming in today. You might try Luke's place though."

"Why would she be at Luke's house?"

"Um…I don't know….Maybe because they're engaged?"Sookie suggested.

"Not anymore," Emily said. "Luke left her last night. She told me so last night."

"No, he didn't. Why would he leave her? He's been in love with her for years. They're getting married in just a little over a month. I've been helping Lorelai make wedding plans."

"I think perhaps you should put your wedding planning on hold. I have a feeling the wedding won't be happening after last night."

"You're crazy! The wedding is happening. I just talked to Luke this morning. He called me to tell me that Lorelai wouldn't be in today because she wasn't feeling well. He asked me how far I'd gotten on planning and if there was anything he needed to do to help. If you ask me I think he's looking forward their wedding day even more than Lorelai is."

"Hmmm," Emily said thoughtfully. Was it possible? Her earlier fears that Lorelai had gone back to him came back to haunt her. She thought that her daughter would have had time to come to her senses and realize that she didn't belong with Luke.

"Are you ok, Emily?"Sookie asked after seeing the frown on her face.

"I'm fine, thank you, Sookie. I think I will go to _Luke's_."

"Ok," Sookie said with a confused look on her face as Emily left the kitchen. She shook it off and returned to work, calling out, "Pedro, don't even think of cooking those eggs in the same pan you just took the bacon out of! Are you crazy?" She bit her lip thoughtfully wondering why Emily would ever think that Luke would leave Lorelai, especially now that they were expecting a baby. She hoped that Lorelai not coming to work today was really just because she was sick and not because she and Luke were fighting.

Emily walked into _Luke's _looking for its proprietor. She'd decided to go straight to the source and find out exactly what happened. She didn't see him anywhere. She decided to wait. There were no available tables so she sat at the counter; much as she had a few months ago when she'd lowered herself to talk him into going back to Lorelai, a move she deeply regretted. Lorelai wouldn't be pregnant now if she hadn't. She watched Rory's Asian friend and an older Asian man hurrying back and forth between the kitchen and the various tables in the diner delivering food to customers and taking orders. She wondered where Luke was. When the place was this busy, he should definitely be here. She watched as Kirk rose from his seat and walked behind the counter, grabbing the coffee pot and refilling his cup. She couldn't believe that Luke let customers serve themselves. That was not good customer service. No sooner had she thought this, than the owner himself emerged from the kitchen and watched in confusion as Kirk returned the pot to its burner.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?"Luke barked at Kirk.

"I was just getting some coffee," Kirk replied sheepishly.

"You came behind my counter."

"I saw Lorelai do it the other day," Kirk pointed out.

"Lorelai is my fiancée." Emily scowled at hearing this statement. _So they have worked things out,_ she thought bitterly.

"So only people you're sleeping with are allowed to go behind the counter?" Emily's scowl deepened at Kirk bluntly reminding her that Lorelai was willingly giving herself to the scruffy man in front of her.

"Yes," Luke answered impatiently.

"Well, I don't really know you that well, Luke. I mean, I know what you do for a living, and I know you're a Scorpio, and you smell okay, but we've never really connected on a deeper level, and–"

"Get out from behind my counter, Kirk!" Luke snapped in irritation.

"Well, now it's a definite no," Kirk pouted as he returned to his seat.

Luke shook his head at the insanity of his neighbor. He tensed when he noticed Emily sitting at his counter as if she belonged there. "What can I get you, Emily?"He asked as if she were any other customer while picking up an order pad. He wasn't going to start an argument with her in diner, especially considering it was once again full of customers.

"I'm not here to eat, Luke," she said haughtily. As if she'd ever eat in a place like this if she could help it.

"Then, move," he growled. "These seats are for paying customers and as you can see. We're a little busy today."

"Fine, I'll have a cup of coffee," she conceded. Luke turned the cup in front of her over and filled it with coffee. "And Lorelai," she added.

Luke turned and slammed the pot back on in its place causing the contents to splash and begin to sizzle on the burner. "No," he said unwaveringly. "She's off the menu."

"Are you honestly refusing to let me speak to my daughter? I spoke to Sookie this morning, so I know she's here."

"Yes, she's here. She's upstairs sound asleep and I intend to let her stay that way. She had a rough night, but you already know that since you caused it." He wasn't going to back down. "She's been up half the night and she needs her rest."

"Well, perhaps you should keep your hands to yourself and _let _her rest," Emily said contemptuously.

Luke chuckled a little at her comments and shook his head. "I always wondered where Lorelai got her dirty mind from. Now, I know."

"Excuse me?"Emily said hotly.

"I'm just saying that's the first place your mind goes. Not that it's any of your business, but that's not the reason Lorelai was awake. She was upset over your visit, not to mention that she was up and down all night puking her guts up."

"If you hadn't gotten her pregnant, she wouldn't be getting sick," Emily pointed out. At Emily's words several heads turned. Miss Patty and Babette rushed over to him, both gripping him in a tight hug.

"Congratulations, Sugah!" Babette gushed.

"Why, Luke, you naughty boy," Patty said with a suggestive wink. "I'm so happy for you two."

"Can you imagine what their baby's gonna' look like?"Babette said to Patty as they released him. "I mean, with her china doll good looks and his incredible ass!"

"What the hell are you doing looking at my ass?"Luke said in exasperation.

"Well, honey, it's there to look at and damn fine if you ask me," Patty said grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, quit looking," he snapped.

"So, tell us everything," Babette said. "Is she feeling ok?"

"How far along is she?"

"When is the baby due?"

"Do you know yet if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Is this why the wedding's so soon?"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Hey, you two," Luke said impatiently. "Slow down. We only found out yesterday. Lorelai doesn't even go to the doctor until tomorrow, so we don't much else yet. We'll find out more when she sees the doctor. We didn't say anything yet, because we wanted to make sure everything's ok."

"That makes sense," Patty said. "But you'll tell us when you know more?"

"We'll take out an ad in the _Stars Hollow Gazette,_" he said dryly. "Will that make you happy?"

"That's not necessary, Sugah," Babette said. "Just so we know before that damned Eastside Tilly."

"You got it," he said shaking his head in amusement. "This place is just one big loony bin," he said after the ladies had returned to their seats.

"Yet you seem determined to stay here," Emily sniped.

"It may be a loony bin, but it's my home," he gruffly. "And Lorelai's," he added making sure that Emily knew that he wasn't going anywhere and that he and Lorelai were building a life together.

"So, is that why you bought the Twickham house again," Kirk asked. "You know when you backed out the deal, I was gonna put another offer on it, but then I found out you beat me to it."

"You knew I wanted that house, Kirk," Luke reminded him.

"I know, but you changed your mind. I don't think it's fair that they still let you have it."

"We've already covered this, Kirk. We went before the town elders in that stupid steam room and they picked me. They know I love the house and I'll take care of it."

"Yes, you will," Lorelai said from the doorway that led upstairs. She walked straight toward Luke not noticing her mother sitting at the counter.

"Hey, are you feeling any better?"Luke asked placing a hand on her arm in concern.

"A little," she answered greeting him with a kiss. "You know what would make me feel even better?"

"What's that?" He asked as he raised his hand to cup her face.

"A big stack of your thick fluffy pancakes," she said. "But don't let Caesar make them. Yours are so much better."

"You got it," he said. He kissed her gently and returned to the kitchen.

"Thanks," she said with a smile as she reached for a coffee mug and poured herself a cup of coffee before walking to the other side of the counter and perching on her normal seat at the end of it.

"Good morning, Lorelai," he mother said coolly. She couldn't believe what she'd just witnessed, especially after Lorelai had told her that Luke had walked out on her.

Lorelai ignored her mother and turned around noticing Kirk at the table behind her. "Hey, Kirk, how's it going? I bet you're kinda bummed that Luke bought the Twickham house for us when you still wanted it." She couldn't resist rubbing it in her mother's face that her heartless scheme to break them up had failed.

Kirk whimpered slightly in response, "I guess it's ok. With the two of you having a baby, I guess you need it more than I do."

"Yeah, we definitely need a bigger place. My house isn't big enough and you've seen Luke's apartment. There's not even enough room for him up there, let alone me and a baby." She wondered how Kirk knew that she was pregnant and who had blabbed. As far as she knew, there were three possibilities, Michel, Sookie or Taylor. Of the three, she figure Taylor was that most likely suspect.

His face brightened as a thought occurred to him. "Hey, maybe I could buy your house when you move. I mean it's not like you need _two _houses."

"Um…Well…We…uh… haven't really decided what we're going to do with the old house yet," she replied awkwardly. Lorelai felt a momentary stab of pain as she thought of getting rid of the house that she'd shared with Rory for so long. She knew that the bigger house was necessary. But she couldn't bear the thought of selling Rory's childhood home without her knowledge. She hadn't bothered to return any of her messages so she still didn't even know that she was about to have a new step-father and a new sibling, let alone about the house deal.

"But will you at least keep me in mind if you decide to sell it?"

"Will do," she said.

"Lorelai, Darling," Miss Patty said as she and Babette walked up to her. "Congratulations! We just heard the news. How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, thanks. A little nauseated, but basically ok," she answered again wondering who she had to kill for letting the news out before she and Luke were ready to share it with everyone.

"Why didn't you tell us, Sugah," Babette asked. "Or at least me, I mean, I've lived next door to you forever and I feel like I'm the last to know."

"Trust me, Babette; you're not the last to know." Lorelai said with a hint of sadness in her voice as she again thought of Rory.

"I just still can't figure out why you didn't tell us," Patty said. "Luke said it was because you wanted to make sure everything's ok with the baby, but there's no reason the baby shouldn't be fine. I mean, you're both healthy."

"Well, we're still kinda processing it ourselves and trying to make plans."

"Is it because you're not married yet? 'Cause you've got nothing to be ashamed of here. If I had a man as fine as Luke in my life, I'd never wanna get out of bed."

Lorelai grinned and glanced toward the kitchen where she knew her man was fixing her breakfast. "He is pretty hot, isn't he?"

"Totally," Babette agreed. "And that ass, yum!"

"Shame on you, Babette," Lorelai teased. "I oughtta tell Morey on you."

"Oh, please! You should see all the girls he flirts with when he's on the road. I'm just saying you got yourself a good-looking man and I can just imagine what a pretty baby you two made." Emily snorted at this. Were these women serious? How could they possibly think that the unkempt diner owner was in any way attractive? She cringed as she thought of what her grandchild would look like should he or she inherit looks from its father.

"Emily, Honey," Patty gushed. "You must be so tickled that you're gonna be a grandma again!"

Lorelai turned to look at her mother, wondering how she was going to respond since she knew that Emily was anything but tickled at the news. She'd made that very plain.

"Oh, um…"Emily stammered not wanting the entire town to know that she'd been less than supportive. She knew from her previous visits to Stars Hollow that the two women in front of her were the town's biggest busybodies. She didn't want them thinking that she was some kind of heartless shrew. "Of course," she lied. Well, it wasn't entirely a lie. She did like the idea of having another grandchild. It was the child's father she couldn't stand. "I've always thought that Lorelai should have more children. She's been a wonderful mother to Rory." Lorelai gaped at her mother in disbelief unable to believe that she has the gall to tell a bold-faced lie like that to her neighbors.

"She sure has," Babette agreed. "I remember when she first moved into the house next door to me with that little girl. She was so proud that she was able to buy her daughter a real house after years of struggling. The good thing is this time, she ain't gonna have to do it alone. She'll have Luke to help her."

"Come on, Honey," Miss Patty said. "She always did have Luke to help her. I never saw a man love a kid so much that wasn't even his. He'd give his life to protect Rory, if it came down to it. I can just imagine how he'll be with his own kid. You remember when Dean broke up with her the first time and Luke went after him? I thought he was gonna rip the kid's head off his shoulders for breaking that sweet little girl's heart."

"Oh, yeah," Babette said. "And when she was all sad about that caterpillar dying and she was running around in those angel wings trying to plan a funeral for the poor little thing. Luke made her that itty bitty casket for it and helped her bury it in the back yard."

"That was such a sweet thing for him to do," Patty said. "The man may be all gruff and prickly on the outside, but he's just a big softy on the inside. You know, you're a lucky lady, Lorelai. You know that Luke is gonna spoil your kid rotten from the day it's born."

"I know," Lorelai said with a smile. She looked around at the diner and how busy it was. "Man, I can't believe how packed this place is again."

"It's probably because of the review," Kirk piped up.

"What review?"

"In the _New York Times, _Sunday before last," he said. "I've got a copy of it here somewhere." He began fishing through his pockets and pulled out a slightly crumpled newspaper clipping and handed it to Lorelai. "I'm actually surprised you haven't seen it yet."

"I don't read the _New York Times _and I'm surprised you do," she said as she began to read.

"I've got a subscription. I like to keep informed of what's going on in the world. I've been carrying that around since it came out. I mean, how often does a small town like Stars Hollow get mentioned in a big city newspaper," Kirk explained.

Lorelai's eyes widened as she finished reading the article. "Hey, Burger Boy, "she called out.

"What?"Luke's gruff voice called back.

"Just get out here!"

"Keep your shirt on," he said as he exited the kitchen.

"That's not what you said last night," she said with a wicked grin inciting giggles from Patty and Babette and a look of disdain from Emily as she recalled the appearance of her daughter's bedroom the night before.

"Man," he said turning red as he recalled the events of the previous evening.

"Hon. you've got to see this," Lorelai said excitedly beaming with pride as she handed him the clipping.

"What is it?"

"Just read it," she said impatiently anxious for him to know what had been said about him.

"Ok, ok," he said and began to read. His jaw dropped in shock by the time he got to the end of the article. "I think I need to sit down," he said. "I can't believe that a food critic from New York was here in my diner, eating my food." He thought back for a moment to who had been in the diner after his night of taking over the inn's kitchen. "He must have been that annoying guy that was asking me a million questions. How long have I been in business? What are my hours of operation? What did I put in the special omelet? Did I go to culinary school? Do I have any plans to franchise the place?"

Lorelai left her seat and hugged him tightly. "I'm so proud of you, Babe," she said. "This is amazing! Your restaurant got a rave review in the _New York Times_!"

"It's not that big a deal," Luke said brushing it off. "He praised the Dragonfly too." He pulled away from her and smiled a little at her success.

"No, he praised _your _cooking at the Dragonfly, specifically the lamb chops you made," she corrected. "I bet Sookie hasn't seen this yet. I'd have heard about it by now. Boy, is she gonna be sick when she sees this. It's been driving her crazy trying to figure out what you put in those lamb chops."

"Well, it can keep on driving her crazy," he said. "She doesn't share her cooking secrets with me, so she's not getting mine. I wouldn't get too excited by this. It's really not a big deal."

"Come on, Luke! This _is _big deal! Look how busy this place is because of it! Face it, Doll. You're good at what you do. The guy came here for breakfast after sampling your cooking at the inn just because you were so good at covering for Sookie."

"But he wouldn't have even come to the inn if it weren't for the magazine article, and it was just a fluke that I happened to be the one cooking that night. If Sookie hadn't been put on maternity leave early, it never would've happened. Besides, I think you're exaggerating when you call it a rave review."

"But it did happen and it got you some well-deserved attention," she said and took the clipping back from him. "I mean, listen to this. 'The _Luke's _special omelet is a culinary delight. It's quite obvious that proprietor Luke Danes takes great pride in his work, mixing fresh ingredients and inventive flavor combinations. I don't normally frequent diners, but after trying the outstanding lamb chops mentioned above and discovering that the chef responsible was merely a substitute for the more well-known Sookie St. James and was himself a restaurant owner, I had to try it and I wasn't disappointed. _Luke's _is a hidden gem oozing with small-town charm and good food. I'd recommend _Luke's _to anyone passing through Stars Hollow, Connecticut.' That, my friend, is a rave review, from the _New York Times_, no less. I'm gonna call them up and get a dozen back issues and frame a couple of them so we can hang them up in here and advertise your success."

"I guess it is kinda big, huh?" he said smiling a little.

"Are you kidding? It's huge!"

"That explains why it's been so busy in here lately and why the special omelet is selling like crazy. That's what was taking so long to get your pancakes done. I had to help Caesar chop more tomatoes and cook more bacon because he ran out of what we already had prepped. He was getting backed up on omelet orders."

"I am so, so proud of you," Lorelai said smiling broadly as she planted a firm kiss on his lips. "Now, go get my pancakes done so I can feed your kid."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said with a grin as he headed back to the kitchen. Lorelai returned to her seat and re-read the article overcome with pride in her man.

"I don't know why you're getting so excited about this," Emily said snidely. "Luke's right. That review wouldn't have come about if he hadn't happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"Stop it, Mother, "Lorelai snapped. "Not another word! I'm tired of you running down my future husband!"

"So, you're still determined to marry him?"

"Yes, I am. June 25th and don't bother coming. If you can't be supportive, I don't want you there on my wedding day. I can't understand how a complete stranger can see the good in him and you can't," she said waving the article in her face. "And you've got a lot of balls coming in here and talking smack about him in his place of business."

"Talking smack," Emily questioned, eyebrows arched.

"Yes, Mom, it means insulting someone, talking bad about them, taking a swipe at them, whatever. You do it all the time. I can handle it when you do it to me. I'm used to it, but I will _not_ tolerate you doing it to Luke anymore! From now on, keep your withering glares and your snide comments to yourself because I don't want to hear it! I love Luke with all my heart and I'm going to be his wife and have his baby and we're going to be a family! If you can't accept that then I don't want to see you in Stars Hollow ever again! What you did last night is unforgiveable!"

"I was only trying to-"

"I don't care!"Lorelai shouted, cutting her off. "I don't want to hear another word from you until you can see things for the way they are!

Luke returned from the kitchen with a plate piled high with pancakes and set in front of his fiancée with a look of concern on his face having heard the arguing from the kitchen. "Everything ok," he asked her with a stony glare at Emily.

"Fine," she said. "We were just setting a few things straight."

Emily reached into her purse for some money and said to Luke, "Thanks for the coffee. Lorelai's right, you do make a damn good cup of coffee." That was as close as she could come to complementing her daughter's fiancé. She had to admit, it _was _a good cup of coffee. She slid the money across the counter at him.

"Thanks," Luke said sliding the money back across the counter at her. "But keep your money. I think I made it very clear last night that I don't want or need your money," he reminded her.

Emily bit her lip, trying to control her temper, not wanting to fight with Lorelai again. "You've got a child on the way," she said trying to remain calm. "You're going to need all the money you can get. It takes money to properly care for a child."

"Not from you, I don't. I've got it covered, thanks. Besides that one-dollar cup of coffee isn't exactly gonna break me as I showed you last night. I may not have your kind of money, but I'm more than capable of providing for my family. Now, weren't you leaving?"Emily fixed him with an icy stare but didn't say anything. "By the way, you might wanna call your husband so he knows you're ok. He seemed worried about you when he called here in the middle of the night or maybe you could just go home and tell him in person."

Emily got it. He was telling her to leave without actually saying the words. "Yes, I suppose I should go," she said quietly finally realizing that she wasn't going to win this particular battle. She stuffed her money back into her purse, wondering what else she could do to make her daughter listen to reason. She'd have to save it for another time, though. She wasn't going to get anywhere as long as Luke was nearby. "Lorelai, I'll see you at dinner tomorrow night," she said as she walked to her car and tried to think of another way around Luke.

Luke looked at Lorelai. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know why I'm surprised by my mother's behavior. She's always made Cruella DeVille look like freakin' Mary Poppins. I just thought with a new grandchild on the way, she'd at least be a little happy for us. Speaking of which, how does half the town know about the baby already?"

"That would be courtesy of Cruella," he said. "She let the cat out of the bag when she was bitching at me while you were upstairs."

"I'm sorry you have to put up with that, but I promise after dinner tomorrow night, you won't ever have to see her again."

"I can deal," he said. "Let's just make tomorrow night's dinner about getting Rory back on track and not let your mother get to us."

"Good plan," she said as she tried to imagine how that dinner was going to go down. She couldn't help but wonder what new scheme her mother would come up with to cause trouble. She wanted to think that she would've learned her lesson about meddling but this was Emily Gilmore she was talking about. It was in her nature to meddle. She sighed and returned to the pancakes her thoughtful man had made for her and decided not to worry about it until the time came. She had to keep herself calm for the sake of their child. She smiled as she reflected on her conversation with Patty and Babette and wondered what their baby would look like. It was really starting to hit her that the family life she so desperately craved was within her reach, as long as she didn't let her mother screw it up.


	8. Chapter 8

AN:I am majorly sorry that it's taken me such an insane amount of time to update. I have no excuse except work, work, temorarily dead computer, and more work. I'm putting in 50-60 hours a week right now, but that should change once the holidays are over. Sometimes, real life sucks! LOL. Thanks to all of you who have been reviewing and anxiously awaiting updates. I appreciate your patience and Merry Christmas to you all!!

Lanie

* * *

After being asked to leave _Luke's_ by both her daughter and its surly proprietor, Emily had gone back to her car, but found herself unable to leave Stars Hollow just yet. She didn't want to return to Hartford with things still unresolved between her and her daughter. She'd sat there for several minutes lost in her own thoughts before she'd seen Miss Patty exit the diner and head for her studio across the street. She got out of her car and followed, knowing that if anyone would have any dirt on Luke that she could use against him, it would be this gossipy woman. She walked up behind her as she was unlocking the door to her dance studio and said, "Hello, Patricia."

Miss Patty jumped. "Oh goodness, Emily. I didn't see you there."

"I apologize. I didn't mean to startle you. I was hoping I could talk to you for a moment."

"I'd love to but I've got a tiny tot tumbling class starting in an hour that I have to start setting up for," Miss Patty replied as she walked into her building and flipped the lights on.

"I won't take up much of your time," Emily promised.

"Well, as long as you don't mind me setting things up here while we talk, I suppose that would be ok."

"I don't mind at all. I wouldn't want to keep you from your work," Emily said with barely disguised contempt as she looked around the somewhat shabby room that she knew he granddaughter had once taken ballet classes in.

"Good," Patty said as she began laying out mats for her tumblers. "What is it you wanted to talk to me about?" She glanced at Emily warily wondering what she was up to. She'd heard the way that Lorelai had spoken to her mother in the diner when she tried to brush off Luke's success as if it didn't matter.

"Well, while I was in the diner, I couldn't help but notice your exuberance over Lorelai's pregnancy…" she began hesitantly at seeing the disapproving expression on the boisterous woman's face.

"Oh, Honey, this is the best news I've heard in weeks and you should know that I make sure I always hear all the news in Stars Hollow."

"I'm well aware of that," Emily said knowingly. She smiled slightly trying to convey more warmth than she actually felt and chose her next word carefully. "That's why I came to you. With Lorelai's sudden engagement, it's occurred to me that I know very little about my future son-in-law and I was hoping that since you know so much about everything that goes on in this town, maybe you could help fill in the blanks. After all, as you said you hear all the news." She let out a sigh as she finished speaking, hoping that her words had not offended the woman. She'd tried to make it sound complimentary though she had no use for busybodies like Patricia LaCosta. She still couldn't figure out why her daughter was so adamant about staying in this tiny town where you couldn't sneeze without the whole town knowing about it.

"Emily, Darling, this engagement isn't sudden at all. The two of them have been heading toward this for years. I mean, everyone in town knows that Luke's been in love with Lorelai since the first time she barreled into his diner begging for coffee nine years ago."

"If that's true, why is it that they only started dating last year?"

"I love Luke to pieces. I mean, I've known him since he was a boy, but he's always been a little slow to process things like that. I'll tell you something about Luke, though. You won't find someone more loyal than he is. To his friends, to his hometown, to his family…"

"I thought that he didn't have any family to speak of," Emily interjected. _Certainly not any decent family,_ she added to herself.

"He's got his sister and her kid, plus some cousins scattered around the country. Poor guy lost his mom when he was only ten and then his dad when he was nineteen. It was hard on him, especially when little Lizzie got pregnant and ran off with Jimmy Mariano and leaving him here to deal with all of his dad's stuff by himself. Then Jimmy ran off and left Liz the day Jess was born and he had to deal with making sure she was able to take care of herself and her kid. He was always bailing her out of one mess after another. It was rough on him."

"Sounds like it," Emily said pondering Miss Patty's words.

"The poor guy's life never got any easier either with Rachel flitting in and out of his life, breaking his heart time after time and don't even get me started on that snotty, trampy ex-wife of his. She's the reason he got arrested and spent a night in jail."

"He was in jail?" Emily's eyes widened at the thought that she might actually have found out something about him that she could use against him in her attempt to talk her daughter out of her insanity. "What happened?"

"She was messing around on him and he got so jealous when he caught her at it that he beat up the guy's car."

"My word," Emily said in shock. She didn't like the man, but she'd never guessed that he had violent tendencies. She definitely didn't want that kind of man around her future grandchild.

"Well, you can hardly blame him. He found his wife cheating on him and not only cheating, but doing it in his home. That's not the kind of thing that's easy for a man to take, especially since the two of them were supposed to be working out their differences. I think it was him writing that check to Lorelai that really did it, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Nicole, that's the skinny bitch's name, she was always jealous of Luke's friendship with Lorelai and when he loaned her the money for the inn, all hell broke loose. He was just trying to help out a friend, but Nicole didn't see it that way. See, Luke thought that nobody knew about him helping her out, but he should know better. Nobody in this town can keep a secret. We all knew about Lorelai's money problems with getting the inn up and running and Sookie and Jackson couldn't afford to put any more money into it because Jackson had just bought a whole bunch of new equipment to keep his farm running since Sookie was bringing in next to no income and they had a new baby to take care of. Luke was such a hero stepping in when they needed help like that, but it really screwed things up with Nicole. They had a huge screaming match over it, though they thought we didn't know about it. It happened in his apartment right above the diner where everyone could hear it. I walked in toward the end of it, but Kirk filled me in on what I missed. Apparently, it was pretty ugly. She accused him of cheating with Lorelai which was completely ridiculous. Luke would never be the type to stray. He's probably the most loyal man I've ever known," Patty said then added with a grin, "And believe me, I've known a few. The crazy thing was that while she was accusing him of cheating, she was actually the one who was sleeping around."

"How awful," Emily said.

"Well, Nicole was never right for him in the first place. We all knew it when he started dating her. She was much too uptight for him, always dragging him to ballets and operas and French restaurants, totally not his scene. He needs someone that he can just be himself with, someone who's more down to earth and likes simple things like movies and home-cooked meals, like Lorelai. That's why she's so good for him. She doesn't try to make him be something he's not. You know, I'll never forget the first time I met Lorelai. She was working so hard for Mia, trying to prove herself so she could take care of that baby when she was still just a baby herself. We're all so proud of her and how far she's come from those days and Luke was a big part of that. He was always there for her and little Rory when they needed someone and everyone here is so happy now that they're having a baby of their own. They've both struggled for so long, they deserve some happiness after all this time." Patty put down the last mat, walked to the door of her studio and looked out just in time to see Luke and Lorelai walking out of the diner hand in hand. "Look at the two of them and how happy they are," she said to Emily as she gestured across the square.

Emily watched as her daughter laughed at something that her fiancé had said. Lorelai leaned into him and kissed him longingly while her mother cringed. She glared while Luke responded by slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer and she wrapped her arms around his neck dislodging his ever-present baseball cap in the process. She removed it from him and ran the fingers of her other hand through the thick hair he kept hidden beneath it. They broke apart and just stared at each other for a moment before Luke said something else that Emily couldn't hear from her distance. It must have been in regards to the cap because Lorelai replied by teasingly holding it behind her back forcing him to reach around her to retrieve it. A mild wrestling match ensued over the baseball cap ending with Luke snatching it back from her and firmly placing it back on his head before kissing her once more. When the second kiss ended, Lorelai turned to go before she was stopped by Luke adding something else causing her to turn and smile at him. She said something in reply that Emily couldn't hear, but she assumed it was one of her wildly inappropriate comments as it made Luke blush. Lorelai said good-bye and started walking back toward her home while Luke watched her until she was out of sight before turning back to the diner.

"Now, Emily," Patty said. "Looking at the two of them, who wouldn't be happy for them?"

"Who indeed," Emily replied half-heartedly as she reflected on the scene she'd just witnessed.

"It's been nice talking to you, but I've got to get ready for my class," she said and walked back into her studio to do just that.

Emily stayed rooted to her spot still not believing what she'd seen. She still couldn't believe that as upset as her daughter had been over Luke's abrupt departure last night, there she'd been kissing him as if nothing had ever happened and clinging to him as if he provided the very air she needed to breathe. She glared across the square at the man her daughter intended to marry still not understanding it a bit. He hadn't yet made it the door of his restaurant when he was accosted by a petite blond woman who launched herself at him exuberantly hugging and kissing him. She couldn't hear what was being said, but she distinctly heard the woman squealing in excitement as she bounced up and down like a child. Luke removed her arms from him and looked at her with a smile and replied to her causing her to squeal and hug him again this time planting a kiss on his stubbly jaw. He kissed her back and gestured to the diner, obviously indicating that he needed to get back to work. The woman nodded before squeezing him one more time and walking into the diner behind him. Emily continued to glare icily in the direction of the diner as she watched this blond that Luke had such obvious affection for occupy the seat at the counter that her daughter had vacated mere moments before. She wondered who this woman was, especially in light of Patricia's conviction that Luke wasn't the type to stray. No matter what this dance teacher thought she knew about Luke and the goings-on in this town, she obviously didn't know as much as she thought she did. As she stood there she watched Kirk exit the diner and walk toward her. As she watched him she recalled his disappointment at the fact that Luke had bought the house he'd wanted. A thought struck her as she made her way toward the young man.

"Hello again, Mrs. Gilmore," Kirk said politely.

"Hello, Kirk. May I have a moment of your time?" She said, smiling sweetly to the young man.

* * *

After her breakfast at the diner, Lorelai returned to her house taking advantage of her unplanned day off to start cleaning out her closet enough to make room for Luke's clothes. While she stared into her closet trying to figure out how to accomplish this, she placed her hand on her abdomen thinking of the fact that in a couple of months, most of this stuff wouldn't fit her anyway, so it was better that she start getting rid of stuff now. Besides, Luke was going to be bringing his stuff over this afternoon and she desperately wanted him to move in. She didn't want to spend another single night away from him if she could help it. She knew she needed to do this, but she was still clinging to her pack rat tendencies.

Lorelai had to admit to herself that she was a little scared. Everything was changing. She'd never opened up her home to a man before. She'd tried with Max, but found that she couldn't do it with him. She couldn't let him in. With Luke, it didn't feel quite as scary, at least not in the same way it had with Max. With Max, it had been her fear of grown-up commitment that had held her back, but she already had that grown-up commitment thing with Luke. Her fears about Luke had more to do with her own insecurities about screwing up the best relationship she'd ever had, not only losing him as a lover, but as a friend. They'd been so close as friends and she was deathly afraid of screwing up the relationship part and losing her best friend in the process. She knew from experience after their break-up that if something happened to split them up, they could never go back to the way they were before they'd become a couple.

As she thought of their break-up, she was overcome once again with fury at her mother's attempt to buy Luke's way out of her life. She felt tears stinging her eyes again as she realized that no matter what she did, her mother could never just love her the way she was and accept that the life she'd chosen made her happy. Her mother's behavior lately had made her feel like a little girl again being forced into a frilly dress that she had no interest in wearing and being coerced into making polite, boring chit-chat with people she hated while her mother watched her like a hawk, looking for the slightest misstep in her daughter's behavior that she could swoop down and attack her for. She recalled many battles with her mother over the years over what a proper young lady should be. She knew it didn't include getting pregnant out of wedlock. She'd known since the moment she'd had her freak out upon waking up in Luke's arms the morning after the magazine party recalling their passionate encounters the night before that if their recklessness has resulted in the creation of another unplanned child, that her mother wouldn't be happy about it, but she'd thought that she would at least realize that this was a different situation that it had been twenty years ago. She had her own business now and was financially secure and she was in a deeply committed, loving relationship with the baby's father. They were already engaged when she found out that she was pregnant. She let out a deep sigh and tried to shake off her thoughts of her mother. _Screw her_, she thought. _I'm happy and she can just deal with it or stay out of my life. _She returned to the task at hand and concentrated on making room for the man she loved in her home.

* * *

Luke bustled around the diner feeling like he was a step behind all day. While his business had always been busy enough for him to make a decent living from, it had never been like this before. There were usually lulls between breakfast and lunch but his time the lull only meant that people weren't waiting in line for tables. The place was still full. He was glad his "little restaurant" as Emily had called was doing well because he knew he'd need the extra income with the house and a baby on the way; however it was still exhausting to be that busy. He thought back to the review and smiled at the thought that a food critic from New York had actually liked his food. He had to admit to himself that even though it was tiring, it was also exhilarating. He'd told Lorelai that it wasn't that big of a deal, but the more he thought about it; the more he realized just how big it was. He wasn't stupid enough to think that his current success was all his alone. He knew that he wouldn't be where he was now, if it hadn't been for Lorelai calling him in a panic begging him to help in the Dragonfly's kitchen. Of course, he'd gone the moment she'd called. He knew that the inn was her baby and he didn't want to see her struggling with it, and Lorelai herself sure couldn't cook. Her idea of gourmet cooking was smooshing tater tots on top of a frozen pizza with pop-tarts for dessert. He chuckled as he thought of her hopelessness in the kitchen. He vividly remembered that for Rory's twelfth birthday, she'd tried to bake a cake for her instead of buying her one and she'd nearly burnt her house down in the process before he'd come to her rescue. He didn't mind doing stuff like that to help her. In fact, he enjoyed cooking for her. He knew that she appreciated it more than all of his customers combined. She loved food and he was happy to provide it.

Luke thought of his words to Emily earlier about how he intended to provide for his family and sighed a little knowing that the battle with her wasn't over. He was worried about what she might try next. He didn't imagine she could sink much lower than trying to buy him off, but with Emily Gilmore, anything was possible. He just hoped that she'd realize before it was too late how much her actions were hurting her daughter. He hated seeing her hurting and even though he knew she was happy with the way their life together was going, he also knew that things were far from perfect. They still had to deal with this rift with Rory and the machinations of her mother, both of which were hurting her immensely. He wanted nothing more than to erase her pain from her eyes, but he knew he couldn't. All he could do was offer his love and support through it all. He just hoped that tomorrow night's dinner wouldn't turn out to be too stressful for her or their unborn child. He smiled again as he thought about the fact that he was going to be a father.

"You know, you keep smiling like that and people are going to think you're up to something," His little sister's voice rang out, breaking into his thoughts. "Oh, wait you have been," Liz added with a grin. "That's how Lorelai got pregnant."

"Knock it off," he said gruffly a slight blush creeping over his face.

"What, Big Brother? I'm just happy for you and Lorelai. I told you I dreamed about you two being together. I have to admit though, I'm a little bummed that you didn't tell me about it yourself."

"We were planning on telling you, but news got around town before we were ready for it to. You know how things are here. Nobody can keep their big yaps shut."

"I know. I'm just saying a little heads up to your only sister might have been nice. I let you in on all the stuff in my life."

"That's because you always need my help with stuff."

"Come on, Bro, I haven't asked for your help with anything in a long time. My life is pretty together right now."

"I know it is, Lizzie and I'm happy for you, but you gotta admit you've knda had a pattern when it comes to men."

"Like you haven't done the same with the women in your life," Liz responded. "You were always looking for that one to settle down with, but the problem is you always picked the ones who weren't the settling-down type. But now you've got Lorelai and you two are starting a life together and you're gonna be a daddy!" Her voice rose to a high-pitched squeal as she finished speaking.

"You mind taking it down a notch? I think they can hear you in Hartford."

"Can I help it if I'm excited? I just want you to be happy."

"Thanks, Liz. I _am _happy." He turned from his sister toward the cash register to take care of the customers that has gathered there waiting to be rung up. He took their money and made change while fielding their questions about his impending fatherhood that his sister had so exuberantly shared with everyone. When the crowd has thinned a little he called out to Lane,"Hey, do you think you guys can handle things around here for about an hour or so? I've got some things I need to do while it's not quite so busy."

"You're not gonna fight with Taylor again, are you?"His young waitress queried.

"Not unless he comes up with some new way to torture me," he quipped.

"We got it covered," Lane said confidently.

"Thanks," he said grateful to have an employee like Lane who he knew would watch his back. He pushed open the door to the diner and walked down the street toward _Doose's _to pick up a few things for the house as he knew that Lorelai didn't keep real food there most of the time and he wanted to make her a nice dinner tonight to celebrate their decision to move in together, not to mention the fact that he wanted to make sure that she was eating right now that she was pregnant. He planned on taking more of his belongings over there in the afternoon to make it at least somewhat official. He walked in to the small market, picked up a shopping basket and began perusing the shelves looking for the items he required for his planned dinner. He sighed as he thought that no matter how many special dinners he cooked for Lorelai, it still wouldn't fix the pain in her heart, but he knew that she would be grateful for his efforts and that he'd be at least temporarily rewarded with one of her beautiful smiles.

"That's a deep sigh for a guy who should be on cloud nine right about now," a sarcastic voice said behind him.

Luke turned to see Dean standing there halfway through stocking the shelves. "What the hell is that supposed to mean," he replied hotly.

"Just what I said," the younger man replied. "You did it. You landed a Gilmore girl. You should be dancing on air like some stupid cartoon fairy tale."

"I don't dance," Luke groused.

"You know what I mean. What's got you so upset? Oh, I know," He said snarkily. "Maybe it's the _way_ you landed her. You must have taken my words to heart. I've got to admit, knocking her up is a pretty good way to make sure that she's tied to you forever when we both know that she'll never be truly happy being just a small-town girl."

"That's not how it happened," Luke protested.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it," Dean said with a smug smile. "I only wish I'd thought of it. Then maybe Rory would still be with me instead of that snotty bastard she's with now, living in that stuck-up world with her uptight grandparents. But I guess that's what she wanted all along after being raised by a single mom, always struggling for money."

"Rory outgrew you, Dean. That's all! She moved on and you should too! Here's a thought, maybe you should try mending fences with your wife! Remember her? The one you didn't really love, but married anyway trying to get over Rory?"

"Ex-wife," Dean corrected then added. "And you're one to talk about marrying someone you don't love to get over someone else!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean," Luke asked hotly.

"Oh, Come on, Luke! The whole damn town knows you didn't give a shit about Nicole and that you only married her because you thought you couldn't have Lorelai. If you knew what I knew about her though, you should have known that you could. For that matter, so could just about anyone else. Lorelai's never been known for being shy with men!"

"You think I don't know that Lorelai has a past? Hello, she had a kid when she was sixteen! I mean, come on, Lorelai just turned thirty-seven and Rory will be twenty-one in October. You do the math! That's not exactly earth-shattering news here, but so what? It's not like I've been a monk myself."

"Oh, you're a regular Hugh Hefner," Dean said snottily. "I'm surprised you had time to stop in at our little small-town market between visits to the Playboy mansion!"

"You know what I mean," Luke said getting madder by the second. "Look, I don't know what your problem is, but it's not with me! It seems to me that you're bitter because I got the girl and you didn't!"

"And how'd you get her? By getting her pregnant to make sure she was bound to you forever! What'd you do to get her to let her guard down, get her drunk?"

"NO!" Luke cringed inwardly, knowing that that had been exactly how their child had been conceived. Not that he'd personally gotten her drunk, but they'd both been pretty plowed that night and things had happened that they hadn't planned on in their celebration of the Dragonfly's success. He thought of the wedding plans they were making and wondered now if things would be progressing this quickly if Lorelai hadn't gotten pregnant. Would they still be getting married in only a month or would Lorelai be dragging her feet because of her rift with Rory? As Dean's words started to plague his mind, another horrible thought struck him. Did Lorelai only propose to him as a way of finding a substitute for the MIA Rory as Emily had suggested? Lorelai had said that it wasn't true, but how could he really know what was going on in her head?

"You got awful quiet there all of a sudden," Dean said smugly knowing that his words had sunk in. "You know I'm right, don't you? You're just a temporary plaything to Lorelai. You'll never be able to keep her happy. It's like I said before, she wants more than this and all you are is this."

"You're wrong," Luke said adamantly, though not entirely sure himself. "Lorelai _is _happy with me and I'm going to make sure she stays that way."

"Whatever you say," Dean said and returned to his task.

Luke turned away from the younger man and resumed his shopping, still seething over his snarky comments about his relationship with Lorelai but now filled with nagging doubts wondering if Dean was right. Was he just fooling himself thinking that he could make Lorelai happy for the rest of her life?

* * *

Emily once again stood on the front porch of her daughter's home, waiting for her to answer the door. She knew that she was home as her Jeep was in the driveway. She'd rung the bell, but she guessed Lorelai couldn't hear it due to the blaring music she heard coming from the living room. Growing impatient, she decided to try the door and found it unlocked, not that it would have mattered as she knew there was a hidden key in the decorative turtle on the porch. She walked into her daughter's living room to find her folding clothes and singing along with the music, oblivious to her mother's appearance in her domain.  
"I feel good in your room, let's lock the world out," Lorelai sang as she danced while she folded. "Feels so good when we kiss, Nobody ever made me crazy like this." Emily watched in silence for a moment as she listened to the lyrics of the song and wondered if the exuberance in her daughter's voice was because she was relating this song to her relationship with Luke. This unhealthy relationship had certainly made her daughter a little crazier than normal. While they'd had many arguments over the years, none had been as heated as the ones about the current man in her life. Lorelai continued her task unaware of the unwelcome presence in her home until her mother reached for the CD player and shut it off, shaking her out of her Luke-inspired Bangles moment. She turned to see who'd turned off her music and her smile quickly faded when she saw her mother standing in her living room. "Don't you know how to take a hint," she asked her mother with displeasure while she picked up one of Luke's flannel shirts that had been left there and reached for a hanger for it.

Emily scowled as she watched her daughter's actions and said, "So, this man has you doing his laundry now? Doesn't he realize that you no longer work as a maid?"

"Of course he does," Lorelai answered once again getting irritated with her mother for attacking Luke. "He didn't ask me to do this. I needed to do laundry anyway and he has clothes here too. Besides, I don't mind doing stuff like this for him. He does a lot for me. That's what couples do. They do things for each other, not that you would know anything about that, since you have maids and cooks to do all your stuff for you." She set aside the hanger with Luke's shirt on it and reached for the boxers on the top of the laundry basket and began to fold them.

"So, this doesn't bother you," Emily inquired gesturing to the boxers in her daughter's hands. "Handling his…er…personal things."

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? So, I'm handling his underwear, big deal. It's not like I've never done it before. I've taken them off of him many times. The man has been inside me for crying out loud!"

"God, was that _really_ necessary?"

"Yeah, I think it was, Mom. Have you forgotten that I'm pregnant? That his child is growing inside me? That wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been there first or have you forgotten how babies are made."

Emily simply glared at her daughter, "Are you quite certain of that, Lorelai? I heard Luke say earlier that you hadn't been to see a doctor yet. I mean, this is quite the leap you're taking in marrying this man if you're not sure."

"Yes, I'm sure, Mom. I've taken two EPTs now and all the signs are there. Besides that, I know my own body. I know when something's different. "

"I'm not talking about the pregnancy. What I meant was, are you quite sure that that man is the father?"

"That man has a name. It's Luke, and yes, I'm sure. Why wouldn't I be? I haven't slept with another man since Luke and I got together. The last one before that was Jason and that was well over a year ago!" Lorelai was appalled by her mother's insinuation that she'd have cheated on Luke. "I can't believe that you would think I don't know who the father of my child is. I know I haven't exactly been a nun, but I don't sleep around when I'm in a relationship! Do you honestly think that I'm that big a whore? Is that what you think of me?"

"No, I'm only saying that you and Luke were broken up for a while very recently and the possibility occurred to me that there might have been someone else while you were apart."

"So, you think that I'm so trampy that I'd get dumped and jump right into bed with someone else?"

"I didn't say that!"

"No, but you implied it. God, I can't believe you think that about your own daughter! I know that I've made some mistakes in my past when it comes to men, but I'm not so slutty that I would do something like that!"

"How am I supposed to know what you would or wouldn't do when it comes to men? It's not like you ever share any real details of your life with me! If you recall, the time that you and Luke were apart, you weren't speaking to me! You wouldn't come to dinner, you never returned any of my phone calls, and you hung up on me every time that I called you! You went running to Daddy when you were having problems with your insurance company for the inn, but you left me out in the cold!"

"Because you were the one who got me dumped! The break-up was caused by your interference! I was broken-hearted and you were responsible for it! Did you honestly expect me to just forgive and forget? Now, you're doing the same thing again! You're trying to do whatever it takes to come between me and Luke and I'm not going to let it happen this time! I _will_ marry him and I'm beyond caring what you think about it." That wasn't true, but she couldn't admit to her mother that in spite of all the hurt she'd caused, she desperately wanted her mother's approval or just once, to hear her mother say she was proud of her.

"Lorelai, listen…"

"No, _you _listen," Lorelai said, cutting her mother off. "I will not let you destroy my future with Luke! I don't get why you're hell-bent on trying to talk me out of marrying him. He's done nothing to you, ever! He is a good man with a good heart who loves me unconditionally, something you've never managed to do."

"I wish you'd stop saying that! I _do _love you, Lorelai. Why do you think I can't bear the thought of you throwing your future away over this man?"

"Luke, mom! His name is Luke! You don't get it, do you? The only way that I'd be throwing my future away over him is if I let him walk out of my life again!"

"If he wants to walk out, perhaps you should let him," Emil stated. "Do you honestly want to be married to a man who already wants out? What kind of marriage would that be?"

"He doesn't want out. I think if we could get our wedding planned any faster, he'd be all for it! He's going to be packing up his stuff to move over here after the diner calms down a little so we can be together all the time."

"He's moving in here," Emily asked incredulously.

"Yes, he is. We'll be married in just a little over a month and we decided that we should start getting used to the idea of living together. Trust me, Mom, Luke doesn't want out."

"If he doesn't want out, then why did he walk out on you last night?"

"He needed time to cool off, that's all, but after we talked we worked everything out. It was a fight, Mom. Nothing more."

"It seems to me you have a lot of those. Do you honestly want to bind yourself to man who can't control his temper? He clearly has anger management issues." She remembered the tale Miss Patty had told her about Luke beating up a car and recalled his words to her of the night before about having to kill her. At the time, she'd thought it was an idle threat, but now that she'd heard of his violent past, she wasn't so sure. She didn't think that Luke was actually a killer, but who knew what a man like that was capable of?

"Luke does not have anger management issues. He's just the kind of man who holds everything in until he's pushed too far, like Dad."

"That man is nothing like your father! Your father is a wonderful man!"

"For the last time, his name is LUKE," Lorelai shouted irately at her mother! "And he is also a wonderful man! If you weren't so blinded by your insane hatred of him, you'd see that! Take a walk around town, Mom. Ask anyone here what they think of Luke and they'll tell you how amazing he is."

Emily snorted at this as she thought of hearing about his arrest from Miss Patty and her conversation with Kirk who'd told her of a time that Luke had thrown a frying pan through the connecting window between the diner and the soda shop. She wondered if Lorelai knew that he had a propensity for destruction of property. She was about to tell her when her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.

"Lorelai?" Luke's voice called out as he walked in carrying a grocery bag.

"Hi, Hon," Lorelai said greeting him with a kiss. "What's all this?"

"Just some stuff I picked up for dinner tonight," he said. "I wanted to make sure there was more in the house than just Mallomars. You have to start eating right, if not for yourself, at least for the baby."

"Hey, I'll have you know, there's more in the house than just Mallomars. There's also Red Vines, marshmallows and Pop Tarts."

"A real gourmet meal, "Luke quipped. He looked past his fiancée and noticed Emily standing there. That explained the pained expression he'd seen on Lorelai's face when he'd walked in. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing," Lorelai answered quickly. "My mother was just leaving."

"No, I wasn't," Emily argued. "We aren't done with our conversation."

"Yes, Mother, we are. We're done," Lorelai said pointedly.

"I see," Emily said. Lorelai's meaning was perfectly clear to her. The last time she'd said they were done Lorelai had cut her out of her life and hadn't spoken to her in over a month. "Well, I guess I'll just see you at dinner tomorrow night." She walked toward the door, but turned back to glance at her daughter for a moment before leaving and watched as she peered into the bag Luke had brought in with him, before smiling at him. He merely smiled back in response and shrugged his shoulders. There was clearly some unspoken communication going on between them, something she hadn't noticed before. She sighed and left her daughter's house once more.

"So, you wanna clue me in on what was going on when I walked in here," Luke asked Lorelai after his future mother-in-law had made her exit. He walked into the kitchen, set the bag down on the table and began unloading its contents.

"It's not that big a deal," Lorelai said as she followed him to the kitchen. "It was just more of Emily being...well, Emily."

"So, how bad did she rake me over the coals this time?"

"Pretty bad. So bad, in fact, that I'm surprised your ass isn't on fire," She joked trying to laugh off her mother's hurtful comments.

"Ouch," Luke said as he continued the task at hand.

"It wasn't just you, though. She practically called me Heidi Fleiss."

"You're kidding," Luke said in surprise.

"Nope, in my mother's mind, I'm nothing but a whore. It doesn't matter to her that I'm committed to you and that we're getting married soon. She just can't get over the fact that I got pregnant so young, so now that's all she sees in me."

"Come on, Lorelai. I don't think that's all she sees in you."

"No, Luke. It is. All she sees is the flighty irresponsible girl who got knocked up at fifteen and gave birth at sixteen. The fact that I'm pregnant again and still unmarried has only increased that image of me that she has in her head. She doesn't see that there's more to me than that and she hates you for no good reason. She's never going to let us live in peace."

Luke finished putting away the groceries and reached for Lorelai, wrapping his arms around her. "Hey, it's gonna be ok. We'll come up with a way to work this out. If we have to move to Tibet and raise llamas to keep her out of our lives, we'll do it."

Lorelai giggled at the imagery of them raising llamas in Tibet and sank into Luke's warm embrace. "Nah. I don't see us being the llama-raising type. I wonder how much it costs to hire a hit-man," Lorelai joked.

"IF only we could get a hold of your mother's tire iron guys, we'd be all set," he joked back, trying to keep the mood light, knowing how much Emily's disapproval was upsetting Lorelai.

"I just wonder what she's got up her sleeve for tomorrow night's dinner. It promises to be torturous, whatever it is."

"Whatever it is, we'll deal with it. We just have to remember to keep the focus on Rory. That's the whole reason we're going to this stupid dinner tomorrow."

"I know," she said with a sigh. "But you know my mother won't leave it there."

"Yeah, but at least we know that we got your father's support. Maybe he'll help back us up if things get too bad."

"Maybe," she said as she extracted herself from Luke's arms and returned to the laundry she'd abandoned. "I need to get this finished so I can get it all put away before your start brining stuff over later."

"That's the other reason I came over here. Since I walked home last night, I left the truck here and I'm going to need it if I'm gonna haul boxes of stuff over here." He said as he walked back toward the living room. He noticed that the light on the answering machine was blinking as he walked past it. "Hey, did you know you've got messages on the machine?"

"No, I didn't. I've been kind of busy since I got home, trying to make room for you here. I hadn't even thought to check the machine. I'll get to it in a little while. I just wanna finish this up here."

"Ok," Luke replied. "I've gotta head back to the diner before the lunch rush starts, but I'll see you later. Make sure that you get some rest too, and don't overdo it on the house stuff. Whatever you don't get done, I'll do when I get home." It surprised him a little in that moment how comfortable he felt calling this house "home" when he hadn't even moved in yet. It was nice though to think of the fact that he and Lorelai would very soon be sharing a home. He almost wanted to blow off going to the diner just so he could get his stuff moved in faster, but he knew that if he was going to be able to provide any kind of decent life for his family, he couldn't abandon his business.

"Ok," she said.

"You promise me you'll take care of yourself?"

"Yes," she said. "I won't overdo it. I just want to try to get as much done as possible so I can have you butt here with me all the time."

"I get that," he said with a smile and planted a quick kiss to her lips before heading out to his trusty Chevy that was going to help him on his way to building on his life with Lorelai.

Lorelai walked to the stereo that her mother had turned off and once again joined the Bangles in song as she continued folding and putting away the laundry she'd started. As she walked up the stairs and into the bedroom she would soon share with Luke to hang his clothes up, she realized how much she liked the idea of seeing his things hanging next to hers in the closet. She smiled, her earlier fears temporarily forgotten as she reveled in the fact that after tonight she'd never have to wake up without him beside her again.

Once the laundry was completely put away, she turned off the stereo and hit the playback button on her answering machine and listened excitedly as she heard her daughter's voice on the machine after a week of not talking. She hung on every word as Rory explained that she'd lost her cell phone and hadn't realized that she'd been calling her and that since she wasn't home, she was going to try to call her cell. Lorelai searched frantically for her purse, trying to remember where she'd left it so she could see if Rory had left a message on it too. She hadn't taken it with her when she'd gone to Luke's place last night in her hurry to get to him and apologize for lashing out at him. She finally found it under the couch where she figured she must have kicked it while using the couch as a folding table for the laundry. She quickly dialed into her voicemail and was told by the automated voice that she had five new messages. She listened to them one by one and smiled when she realized they were all from her daughter until she got to the last one in which Rory's voice was filled with anger and frustration that she hadn't called her back yet and accusing her of avoiding her calls. _Fine,_ Lorelai thought as she listened to this last message, and then slammed the phone shut. _You want to accuse me of avoiding your calls; I'll show you avoiding calls. _She purposefully walked toward the machine and deleted the message from it, now angry at not only her mother, but her daughter as well. What right did she have to accuse her of avoiding calls when she'd been trying to call her for a week and Rory had only been calling her for less than a day? _Let her suffer, _she thought bitterly as she recalled the venom in her daughter's voice on the last message she'd left. She'd see her tomorrow at dinner anyway. What harm would it do to let her wonder for what more day what was going on in her life, when she'd been waiting a week?


	9. Chapter 9

Emily left her daughter's home once again stung by Lorelai's accusation that she didn't love her. How could she think that any mother wouldn't love her daughter? Didn't she realize that the things she'd done were done because she loved her? She loved her daughter so fiercely that she would rather see her temporarily heartbroken than see her being perpetually unhappy by shackling herself to a man who didn't have the means or the ambition to provide for her adequately. She had wanted to share with her the things that she'd found out today about the man that she'd pinned her future on, but then the man himself had shown up at the most inopportune moment. _Damn him! Why can't he leave my daughter alone? Doesn't he understand that he's not right for her? _She thought back to her daughter's crude references to her sex life with him and shuddered at the thought of it, repulsed by the idea of the greasy diner owner being intimate with her only daughter. While under other circumstances she would be thrilled at the idea of having another grandchild, Lorelai's blunt reminder of how the child she was carrying had been conceived made her sick. That combined with the fact that she was allowing him to move in with her had her reeling as she saw her dreams for her daughter's future slipping away from her. She tried to repress the image in her head of Lorelai doing something as mundane as laundry when she should have people to do those things for her. She shouldn't be worrying about household chores while she was pregnant. She'd been sick enough due to her pregnancy that she'd missed work, yet she was risking tiring herself out to make him happy. She should be resting and being pampered rather than working around the house for that worthless man who probably believed it was a woman's job to care for the house while he worked. She had no doubt in her mind that under Luke's influence, she'd be abandoning her business entirely to satisfy his needs and become some dumpy housewife.

She sighed as she walked toward her car parked behind the hideous green truck that Luke drove. She leaned against her car and looked in disdain at the peeling paint on the pickup then glanced at Lorelai's Jeep and realized that neither of them was suitable or safe enough for in infant to ride around in. She wondered if the small-town bumpkin who'd gotten her daughter pregnant had thought of this. He'd thought of buying her a bigger house, though how he was going to afford the mortgage payments on his meager income was beyond her. Kirk had shown it to her during their impromptu walk around town. It didn't seem at all the type of house that would suit Luke, but maybe he'd bought it to try to impress Lorelai knowing that she had been raised in a big house, though much larger than the one in the Stars Hollow town square. She had to admit he _was_ trying, but she knew it wouldn't be enough. She imagined Lorelai paying her another visit down the road, swallowing her pride and begging for money when she was in danger of losing her home because her inadequate provider had gotten in over his head trying to keep up with the kind of lifestyle Lorelai should be living. She was hoping she could talk some sense into her daughter before it came to that, but if it did go that far, she'd be more than happy to bail her daughter out once again. Of course she'd make it known that Lorelai should have listened to her all along when it came to that man and remind her that she always knows what's best for her. Her thoughts were interrupted by the man himself exiting the house and walking toward her.

"You're blocking me in," Luke said gruffly to the woman who for some unknown reason was determined to abhor him as he gestured to his truck that was trapped between Lorelai's Jeep and Emily's Mercedes.

"Well, that was a short visit," Emily commented ignoring his impatient gesture toward the driveway.

"I did what I came to do. I dropped off the groceries for tonight's dinner and now I need to get my truck so I can get back to work. Some of us work for a living," he snapped. He had no use for women like Emily Gilmore who spent their days doing nothing but organizing cocktail parties and barking orders at people and he was not at all happy that she'd upset Lorelai again.

"You didn't need your truck to get here," she pointed out. "It was parked here when I arrived."

"I'm aware of that. I left it here last night."

"After you walked out on my daughter, you mean? I find it very interesting after the way you attacked me and told me emphatically that you were in Lorelai's life for good, that just a short time later you abandoned her and left her sobbing on the bathroom floor while you were off doing God knows what! I'm tired of seeing my daughter crying over you!"

"I didn't abandon her! We argued and I left to cool off before it got any worse! And for the record, the reason she was crying wasn't because of me! It was because of you and that stupid check! The only thing that I did to upset her was keep my word to you and not tell her about it because I didn't want her to be hurt by it! I love her too much to see her hurt by anything!"

"If you _really _love her, you'd do the right thing and walk away!"

"How is walking away from her the right thing to do? She's carrying my child for God's sake!"

"How can you be so sure that the child she's carrying is yours," Emily asked. She knew from her argument with Lorelai that there was no doubt that he was the child's father, but Luke didn't. She was determined to end this ridiculous relationship once and for all. If she couldn't do it by talking to Lorelai, maybe she'd succeed in her efforts by making Luke doubt Lorelai. Maybe even to the point that he'd show off the violent temper she'd just found out was bubbling beneath the surface of his cool exterior, proving to Lorelai once and for all that he was not the kind of man she could build a stable future with.

"What?" Luke was astonished at Emily's insinuation that the baby Lorelai was carrying wasn't his.

"Think about it, Luke. The two of you were apart for a whole month right after Christopher reappeared in her life asking for another chance to make things right with her."

"Are you honestly suggesting that she slept with Christopher while we were apart? She wouldn't do that!"

"Don't tell me the thought never occurred to you. It wouldn't be the first time she's gone back to him. He is Rory's father, after all. She'd most likely have married him three years ago if that girlfriend of his hadn't gotten pregnant, and then the two of you would never have gotten together at all." She smiled smugly at seeing the doubt in his eyes as her words made an impression on him.

Luke thought back to that night three years ago when Lorelai had sat in his diner calling herself Mimi and near tears as she talked about having the whole package and how hurt she was by Christopher's upcoming marriage and how he was going to be there for Sherry and his new child the way he'd never been there for her and Rory. Then he thought about the fact that she'd lied to him just a few months ago about the night she'd spent drinking tequila with him after his father had died. He also thought of Christopher's words to him at Richard and Emily's vow renewal when he'd said that Lorelai was just with him 'for now.' He shook off these nagging thoughts as he reflected on the night they'd reconciled and how she'd apologized profusely for her deception and assured him that Christopher was out of her life for good and said, "No. I'm sure the baby she's carrying is mine. I have no reason to think anything else."

"Don't you? I think we both know that Lorelai's always had a weak spot when it comes to Christopher. It's not so shocking. A woman will always have a special place in her heart for her first lover and let's face it, Luke, you may be a great many things to Lorelai, but that's something that you can never be. While she may care for you, you'll always be second place in her heart to Christopher. Why else would she not tell you right away that she suspected that she was pregnant?"

"No, you're wrong. Lorelai loves me, not Christopher." He argued but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered. Dean's words about Lorelai's past kept coming back to haunt him.

" You're not so sure, are you," she said as she turned her back on him, got into her car and pulled out of the driveway satisfied that she'd accomplished her mission of planting doubt In Luke's mind about his future with Lorelai.

Luke sighed as Emily's words sank in trying not to let those words get to him. He continued to stew over it all the way back to the diner, trying to focus on his and Lorelai's future plans. _What am I doing? Lorelai loves me, _he thought trying to convince himself that Emily was wrong. She was just trying to break them up. He had to admit that she did make one valid point about Christopher. He knew from experience that he'd always been Lorelai's fallback guy. The one she ran to when her other relationships failed. He'd seen it with his own eyes. He'd just have to make sure that this relationship didn't fail. Then she'd have no reason to run to Christopher.

* * *

After leaving Lorelai's house, Emily once again parked in the town square where some kind of event was being set up. She wasn't ready to leave Stars Hollow yet, not until she was absolutely sure that she was on the right path to securing her daughter's future. She looked with contempt at the house Kirk had shown her and sighed. She found it hard to believe that with Luke's scathing comments about how he couldn't be bought that he honestly expected to be able to buy Lorelai's affections with this house. She knew all too well that Lorelai couldn't be bought and she'd tried many times. She put her in the lap of luxury when she was a girl and her daughter just turned up her nose at everything she'd given her and everything she'd tried to do for her. She took time to really look at the house this time and that's when she noticed the woman standing in front of it removing the real estate sign from the yard. She approached the woman.

"Hello. What a lovely house," she said with all the sweetness she could muster.

"Hi," the real estate agent said pleasantly. "If you're interested, I'm afraid it's too late. It's already been sold."

"That's too bad," she said trying to sound like a disappointed potential buyer. That wasn't her intention when she'd seen the woman, but since that was what she'd assumed she saw no reason not to take advantage of it. "I saw the sign on it just this morning and came back to look at it. I guess I should have jumped on it this morning when I first saw it."

"That wouldn't have done any good. It was sold yesterday. We were just a little late in getting the sign taken down. To be honest if things happen the way they did before, I may be putting it back up again in a week."

"What do you mean," Emily inquired.

"Well, the guy who bought it is this perpetual bachelor type. He bought it once before then backed out on the deal."

"Why would someone do that only to buy it again?"

"I'm not really the type who listens to idle gossip, but I heard it's because he got his girlfriend pregnant."

"So, you don't know the man?" Emily was surprised. She thought as small as this town was, everyone knew everyone else.

"No, I'm not from around here. I work in Litchfield mostly, but I help out here from time to time when my office has a listing in Stars Hollow. I only know what I've heard. The guy's some local business owner who pretty much lives like a hermit in a tiny apartment above his business. So, what sparked your interest in the house? You don't look like the typical home buyer."

"How do you mean," Emily asked narrowing her eyes at the woman coolly. Was the woman trying to infer that she didn't look like she could afford it?

"I didn't mean anything bad by it," the woman said, trying to backpedal under Emily's glare. "I only meant looking at the way you're dressed, Chanel suit, designer shoes and all, you don't seem like the type who'd be house-hunting. I'd imagine that you already have your own home."

"Oh, I wasn't interested for myself," Emily explained with a light smile, satisfied that this woman was able to be cowed just the way her maids were. She continued her charade and plunged on. "You see, my daughter just got engaged and she lives here in Stars Hollow. She's been on her own for quite some time and doesn't have the need for all the usual household things you typically buy for a bride, so I thought that a new house might make a nice wedding present." She was hoping that if this woman didn't know Luke that meant that she didn't know Lorelai either. Everyone she'd talked to in town so far referenced them together. 'Luke-and-Lorelai', as if they were one person and not two separate individuals. Technically, she wasn't lying entirely. Her daughter did just get engaged, although she'd never be able to bring herself to buy a house for her to share with that oaf she was involved with. That would indicate that she approved when she didn't.

"Well, I tell you what. This guy that bought has three days to back out of the deal again. Why don't you check back then and see if he still wants it, then maybe we could talk again."

"I don't suppose…" Emily hesitated not sure if she could convince this woman to do her bidding. She lowered her voice and said in a conspiratorial tone, "Well, I know it's probably against the rules, but I was wondering if it would be possible to take a peek inside." She had to admit she was curious about what the rest of the house looked like and what kind of home her daughter would be living in should she be unable to talk her out of her temporary insanity.

"I don't see the harm," the younger woman said. "The new owner won't be able to take possession for a little while, that is assuming he doesn't change his mind again." She walked up to the house keys in hand, with Emily trailing behind her. "I mean, he's already changed his mind about the house twice and men accuse us women of being fickle," she said with a laugh as she opened the door and let Emily inside. "This house is amazing," she gushed. "Do you know if your daughter and her fiancé are planning on having kids? This place would be a great house for kids," she added echoing her words to Lorelai a few days before, though she didn't know that the two women were related as she only saw Lorelai as a prospective buyer and didn't really know her.

"Um, I'm not really sure," Emily lied recoiling at the thought that her daughter was unmarried and pregnant once again, this time by an altogether unsuitable man. She allowed herself to be led on a tour of the house by the overly-exuberant saleswoman as she critically inspected every inch of the home her daughter would soon inhabit if Luke got his way. _I'm not going to let that happen, _she thought to herself as she listened to the woman praising the house that she couldn't help but find fault with when she compared it to her own home. Good_ try, Luke, _she added, _but not good enough._

* * *

Luke had gone back to the diner still fuming over Emily's harsh words and threw himself into his work, trying to concentrate on the flocks of people swarming into his restaurant and not the nagging doubts that were plaguing him. Just a short time ago, he'd been standing in this very spot unbelievably happy about being a father, now his mind was filled with reservations. He kept hearing the voices of both Emily and Dean in his head, recounting Lorelai's past with men. He knew he was being stupid letting them get to him. While Lorelai had been around the block a few times, he knew one thing about her with absolute certainty. When she was in a relationship, she was one-hundred percent faithful, but still he wondered about Emily's suggestion that she'd have run to Christopher while they were broken up. He supposed it _was _possible, but if that had happened, why would she have acted the way she did that day at the market after her parents' vow renewal. She'd practically begged him to let her make things right with him, even going as far as to offer to cut her parents out of her life completely. But he'd hurt her. He'd told her that if he had to decide then and there, that he couldn't be in a relationship with her. Would she have run to Christopher after that? _No, _he reasoned. She wouldn't have left that tearful message on his machine about needing her best friend if she had. And why would she have been so upset over him moving his dad's boat out of her garage without telling her about it?

He vividly recalled the night that Emily had come to see him in the diner and sat at the very counter he was now leaning against, swallowing her pride and telling him to go back to her. The words that had stuck in his head were "she wants you, Luke." That had been all he'd needed to hear to get off his ass and do what he'd wanted to do all along. He'd immediately left the diner and gone straight to her house. He waited impatiently for her to open the door and without saying a word, had kissed her with all the emotion he'd been holding in for a month, showing her that he still needed her, still loved her and had been miserable without her, not giving her a chance to speak until he'd had his moment. She'd wrapped her arms around him and pulled him inside, closing the front door and clinging to him as if her life depended on it. They'd made love right there in her foyer before ever uttering a word to each other aside from those whispered in the heat of the moment about how much they'd missed each other. It seemed incredibly stupid now, looking back on it, that they'd let things go that far without ever talking out their differences, but it seemed right in the moment. They'd talked later, both confessing their fears and apologizing for their stubbornness and agreeing not to keep secrets from one another again. They'd talked all night long before Lorelai had led him up to her bedroom where they fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms, both emotionally spent, but happy that they were together again.

Reflecting on the events of that night made him realize that he was just being stupid letting Emily get to him. There was no way that the baby Lorelai was carrying belonged to anyone but him. He shook his head at his own idiocy. Why was he letting her instill doubt in him about Lorelai when he knew that she was bound and determined to tear them apart? He recalled Emily's other words to him that night about promising to stay out of their relationship. That was a promise she'd broken only a week later when she'd stormed into his diner and attacked him when she thought that he hadn't gone back to her because Lorelai was still refusing to come to Friday night dinner. He remembered Lorelai's anger at her mother when she'd walked into the diner and witnessed the argument between them and she was so angry that she'd actually told her mother to shut up and stay out of their lives. She had for a while, but now that the two of them were getting more serious and actually trying to build a future together, she was at it again and he'd almost fallen for it. He again shook his head this time to clear it of all the nagging doubts that he should never have had in the first place.

He heard the bell over the door and instinctively looked up, smiling as his fiancée walked in. His smile soon faded, though as he saw her tear-streaked face. He didn't say a word, just took her by the hand and led her through the curtain that that hid the entrance to the apartment he'd soon be vacating. Once he'd closed the door behind them he took her in his arms and let her lean on him as she sobbed. He didn't know whether the tears were over her mother or her daughter, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was upset and she needed him. He just held her as she cried laying her head on his shoulder and clinging to him. As he held her, all his doubts from earlier in the day melted away. How could he have been stupid enough to even for a second believe that she'd run to Christopher again. She was clearly upset about something and she'd come to him, not Christopher. He lightly rubbed her back and brushed light kisses against her hair trying to comfort her in any way that he could. When the tears subsided, he raised her head to look her in the eye and asked,"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Yeah," she said shakily.

Luke led her to the couch where he sat beside her and pulled her to him allowing her to lean on him, knowing that she needed it. "Is it your mom again?"

"No. That message on my machine was from Rory," she answered her voice quavering a little.

"That's good, right?" He was glad to hear that maybe at least one of the stubborn Gilmore women was making an effort to end the stand-off between them.

"I thought so at first. She explained that she'd lost her cell phone and hadn't been getting my messages, but she called me as soon as she found it and listened to them."

"Isn't that a good thing? That means she wasn't ignoring your calls like you thought she was."

"That's what I thought until I listened to the messages she left on my cell. At first she was just asking me to call her back as soon as possible, but then when I got to the last one, I just lost it. She actually accused me of avoiding _her_ when I've been trying to get in touch with her non-stop for a week. There was so much anger in her voice, it's like I didn't recognize my own daughter."

"Did you call her back?"

"How could I after that? What the hell would I say to her after a message like that?"

"Lorelai…"

"Don't," she said knowing what he was going to say before he opened his mouth.

"Call her," he insisted saying what her knew she didn't want to hear.

"No, "she said adamantly. "I'm not going to call her back when she's acting like that."

"Well, one of you has to make the first move."

"And I already did. I think fifteen messages left on her voicemail is enough. She knows where I am if she wants to talk to me."

"This is stupid! You two should be talking this out, not building up a bigger wall between you."

"No, Luke. I'm not going to call her again and be that desperate. I've been waiting a week for her to contact me just so I can find out what's going on in her life and then she treats me like that! She'll see me tomorrow night at dinner. Let her wonder until then what's going on in my life!"

"So, she doesn't know about our engagement or anything, does she?"

"No, I figured we'd tell her tomorrow."

"Don't you think she'll be upset that your parents knew before her?"

"Well, so what? If she'd have bothered to make one phone call to her mother in the last few days, she'd already know what's going on."

"But didn't you just say that she left you several messages asking you to call her back?"

"And one hateful one where she said not to bother calling her back and that if I was avoiding her, I could just keep on avoiding her. So, that's exactly what I'm going to do."

"Are you sure that's the right thing to do," he asked in concern. He didn't want to see this rift between the mother and daughter get any bigger. He was partially blaming himself for the fact that Lorelai hadn't been there to get her daughter's calls. If he hadn't lost his temper and stormed off, Lorelai would have been home when Rory had called and not at his place.

"Yep," she said with a determined nod of her head. "Don't worry. We'll see her tomorrow and I'll talk to her then."

"Ok," he said skeptically. "If you say so, I just think it's gonna be that much harder for you to try to talk to Rory with your parents there, especially with the way your mother's been acting."

"Look, I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I appreciate you listening and letting me get it all out, but I just wanna focus on you and me right now. We'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow gets here."

"Lorelai," he began again but was silenced by her lips on his as she kissed him lightly.

"It'll be fine," she said. "We'll work it out tomorrow and if we don't there's always your idea of kidnapping her and locking her in her room until she listens to reason. I'm sure Paris would be willing to help with that."

Luke chuckled a little at the thought as he was reminded of Paris' assertion that Lorelai's 'super-mom crap' as she'd called would be enough to help the flailing young woman they all loved. He'd been a little annoyed by her but also amused at her way of expressing herself. While he didn't really have anything in common with Paris, they agreed on one thing, Rory belonged in school and not losing herself in Emily Gilmore's world of high teas and charity auctions. "I think maybe we should leave Paris out of it. As aggressive as she is, she might scare Rory even further away."

"Yeah, you're probably right," she agreed. Lorelai and Luke sat in silence for a moment before she changed the subject. "Hey, I was thinking," she began.

Luke looked at her and said, "And?"

"I know you bought all that stuff to cook tonight, which was very sweet and I love that you want to cook for me, but would it be ok with you if we put the home-cooked meal on hold and went out instead?"

"You wanna go out tonight? Are you sure you're feeling up to it?" He remembered how sick she'd been last night and this morning.

"Yeah, I feel a lot better than I did and it just occurred to me that we haven't had a night out as an engaged couple yet. I feel the need to get out and celebrate and share our good news with the world."

"Sure," he said eager to see her smile again. "If that's what you want. The food at the house will keep for a couple of days. Maybe we could even catch a movie if you want."

"That's sounds nice. As long as it's not _Star Wars_ again," she said with a grin.

* * *

Emily walked in to the diner after her impromptu tour of the house that would become her daughter's future home, looking for the man who'd bought it for her, determined to let him know exactly how unsuitable it was for her daughter and future grandchild. She didn't see him anywhere and while the diner wasn't as busy as it had been earlier in the day it was still busy enough that he should be there. She wondered if he was in the kitchen. She walked to the end of the counter toward the doorway to the kitchen to look for him but was stopped by a gruff male voice behind her.

"Hey, you can't go back there! That's for employees only," he said.

Emily looked at the unkempt man who'd spoken to her in contempt and said in a haughty voice, "Just who do you think you are to tell me where I can and can't go? For your information, my daughter is engaged to the proprietor of this establishment." She cringed as she said the last part. She still couldn't believe that her daughter was being so stubborn about this and seemed to be throwing her future away by chaining herself to a man who would do nothing but hold her back.

"No kidding?" TJ said. "You're Lorelai's mom? That makes us practically related. Luke's my brother-in-law!"

Emily stared at him in disdain and was about to say something when she heard Luke's voice coming from the doorway at the other end of the counter.

"And they have those flashlight thingies," he was saying.

"Yeah. That's the right name for those," Lorelai replied, clearly amused. "Flashlight thingies."

' And Jedi powers of mind control, they can move things, so they're telekinetic, and they hover their jet saucers over molten lava, and they jump and fly around like they're in Cirque du Soleil."

"Coffee, please," Lorelai interjected into Luke's rant.

"But what gives one Jedi knight the edge over the other, huh? The ultimate advantage? They stand on a mound of dirt and declare, 'You can't win. I've got the high ground.'" He shook his head and added a gesture suggesting that he doesn't get it, then turned to pour Lorelai's coffee.

"Dude, if he said it, that's the way it is. It's a fictional world," Lorelai said as if that explained it all. Emily watched all of this wondering what on earth they were talking about.

Luke turned back to Lorelai takeout coffee cup in hand and not ready to give up continued, "He's four feet up a little slope! And that wipes out all the other guy's powers? The fly, jump around, move things with his brain, use the little flashlight thingy?" He set her cup down on the counter behind him and again gestured emphatically. Emily watched all this wondering what kind of person got this worked up over something that wasn't even real.

"You have got to learn the right term for that flashlight thingy."

"This has been _bugging _me."

"For months! We saw that movie months ago! You've got to let it go!"

"I can't!"

"George Lucas owns San Francisco now. That's a city. You can't argue with a man who owns a city," Lorelai pointed out.

"All the other guy has to do is scurry on to land and run up the hill a bit, and then he has the high ground. I mean, they can fly jet pods, but they can't scurry?"

"Go on a website or something, okay? 'Cause there are thousands - no, millions of your kind out there debating all the minutiae of not just this _Star Wars_ movie, but every _Star Ward_ movie."

"You drag me to see these movies," he replied.

"No, you wanted to see that movie," she countered.

"So I can't critique it because I wanted to see it?" He asked incredulously.

"That's how it works," she stated.

"Well, what about _Bewitched_ "He asked turning the attention away from himself.

Emily watched as her daughter took in a sharp breath and launched into a rant of her own. "Okay, I'm sorry. They screwed up _Bewitched_! Nicole Kidman, good choice, but that concept?

"You should go on a website," Luke said with a grin.

"But _Bewitched _is iconic! Dr. Bombay. Larry Tate. There was no Larry Tate!

"Hey, let it go. We saw this months ago," Luke said mocking her with her own words as he resumed pouring her coffee.

"This is different. You can't have _Bewitched_ without Larry Tate.

"There's your coffee," He said setting the up down in front of her.

Lorelai sighed and said, "So should we stop going to movies?"

"We should stop caring," Luke said with a shrug.

"Okay. Bye, Doll."

"Bye," He replied as he leaned over the counter to kiss her.

Lorelai smiled at him as she started to leave and made it halfway to the door until she took a sip of her coffee, then said, "Hey, what are you trying to do to me here?"

"What are you talking about," Luke asked trying to act nonchalant.

"You gave me decaf," she accused.

"What? You're crazy! I gave you the same stuff you always drink," Luke said as he made his way around the counter toward her.

"No, you didn't. I know the good stuff and this, my friend, is not it. This is decaf."

"Well, so what? You shouldn't be drinking coffee while you're pregnant!"

"Luke," she whined scooting closer to him in an attempt to persuade him to give her what she wanted.

"No, that's all you get. Take it or leave it."

"I hate you," she grumbled.

"You'll get over it," he said with a wry grin.

"Why do you have to be so damn cute," she pouted and kissed him lightly. "I love you."

"I love you," he replied. "Now, go on. I've got work to do."

"Fine, I'll see you later," she said as she made her exit while Luke walked over to a table to wipe it where TJ was in the corner and had resumed his task of installing shelves.

"You see these," he said with an almost indecent caress of the shelf.

"Yeah, I saw them before, TJ. Stop doing that, it's creepy."

"Some of my best work, these shelves…"

"Very shelf-y," Luke replied. He noticed Emily standing at the end of the counter and wondered how long she'd been there. He turned his back on her and turned his attention to TJ and the shelves for a moment, ignoring her presence.

"You're not excited," TJ said in disappointment.

"Yeah, I tend not to get too excited about things like shelves," Luke said dryly as he continued his work.

"I hate that you lost the little boy in you."

"Don't cry for me."

"By the way, I'm throwing in my top shelf as an engagement gift for you, brother-in-law!"

"Great, thanks," Luke said noncommittally only half listening as he continued cleaning.

"Of course, my per shelf rate's gone up since we last talked, so it comes out to the same money," TJ explained.

"Yeah, well, funny how that works," Luke commented, not that he cared about the money. He'd only agreed to let TJ put the shelves up as a favor to his sister in the first place. He was more than capable of doing the same thing himself and didn't need to pay someone else to do it.

"It's very exciting, how Lorelai's gonna be my sister-in-law. Having another hot girl in the family is going to be très cool," TJ continued on a new topic.

"Uh-huh," Luke said still not really paying attention to his brother-in-law's yammering as he was lost in thought wondering what Emily was doing there again. He'd already kicked her out once today.

"People are really gonna stare when the two of us are squiring our delectable wives around," TJ added.

"I don't know just how much mutual squiring you and I are going to be doing," Luke said as he walked past Emily to get behind the counter.

"You've got to admit, our wives are hot," TJ continued as he drew an outline of a woman's body in the air and said "Va-va to the voom!" Emily watched this and felt slightly sick at finding there was a man in Stars Hollow even cruder than the man her daughter planned to marry.

"TJ, your wife is my sister," Luke exclaimed in disgust.

"That don't make you blind, does it," TJ said as he repeated the gesture."Va-va-"

"Don't go to the voom again," Luke groused cutting him off.

"Mr. Sensitive," TJ said with a shake of his head.

"You're done here, right? Don't you have somewhere to go?"

TJ shrugged and said, "I'm pretty free. I was gonna go home and watch Bewitched on DVD but your woman spoiled that for me."

"Yeah, I got to check something out in the storeroom, so..."

"Whoa, whoa, wait, wait! Wait, wait, wait. I need your okay on something."

"As long as it doesn't involve my sister," Luke said starting to get irritated with TJ.

"It pays to advertise, right? I want to put a sign up on the shelves to let people know who did them. 'Shelves by AJ'," he said with another gesture indicating an imaginary sign.

"AJ? Why AJ? Why not TJ?"

"'Cause I'm going in the yellow pages and I want to be up at the top. T puts me after everything except U, V, W, X, Y and Z and I think a few others. Smart, huh?"

Luke bit back the retort that was about to come out of his mouth and said instead, "Yeah, well, I just don't want you advertising here, TJ."

"Well, is it okay if I give out my card to any inquiring party," TJ asked as he handed Luke a card.

"Sure. If they inquire, I'll give them a card," he conceded to get TJ to shut up." He looked at the card. "You crossed out 'Ralph's Shoe Repair' and wrote in 'AJ Construction'. _That's _your card?"

"I don't technically have cards. So I take them from other businesses and write my own stuff in," TJ explained as if it made perfect sense.

"You…uh…might want to cross out the picture of the guy shining the boot. It might confuse things," Luke pointed out.

"Thanks," he said taking the card back while Luke walked to the storeroom. "What a team, huh? What a team," he said before turning to the patrons sitting at the counter.

Emily ignored his rambling about how strong his shelves were and followed Luke into the storeroom. "I'd like to have a word with you, Luke," she said after she'd closed the doo behind her.

"I'm working, Emily," he said impatiently as he picked up a box cutter and sliced into the top of a box on the table.

"I don't care much for your attitude," she said growing weary of this game they were playing.

"Well, I don't care much for these little bitty ketchup packets," he said sarcastically grabbing a fistful of them out of the box and stuffing them into a container to put under the front counter. "I personally think they're a pain in the ass, but running a restaurant, I have to deal with them. We all have our crosses to bear."

"Was that supposed to be funny?"

"It amused me," He said turning his back on Emily and resuming his task.

"You have a strange sense of humor then."

Luke sighed in frustration and turned back around to face his future mother-in-law. "Look, what is it you want, Emily? Did you come to try to buy me off again? Or to try to make me doubt Lorelai like you did earlier by suggesting the baby's not mine? Or maybe you've come to offer me the Hope Diamond this time, huh? Whatever it is it's not going to work!"

"I want you out of my daughter's life," she stated firmly.

"Why? Why do you hate me so much when I've never done anything to you? Is it because I'm not rich, because I don't come from what you consider to be good breeding? What? I can't figure it out. I own my own business, I work hard and I've done my best for years to look after Lorelai and take care of her and I fully intend to keep on taking care of her. Most parents would be thrilled to know that their daughter has a man in her life who wants to love her and care for her and make sure she's safe, but not you! I cook for her, I fix things around the house for her, I make sure that she knows she's loved and I just bought a house so we'll have enough room to raise out children in, but that's not good enough for you!"

"I saw this house. I have to say it was a noble effort, but that place is not good enough for my daughter. It's practically falling apart!"

"No, it's not! It needs a little work, yes, but that can be arranged. Let's face it, Emily, it's not the house that you think isn't good enough for your daughter, it's me! So what is it? Is it because I'm not Christopher? If that's all it is, let me tell you that a man like that, no matter what kind of background he comes from, is not the kind of guy you should want to be with your daughter. He's done nothing but disappoint Rory over and over again by disappearing from her life when I'm the one who's actually been there for her! Family money or not, he's nothing but a deadbeat dad!"

"You can say what you like about Christopher, but it doesn't change the fact that he _is_ Rory's father. A child should have two parents, not just one."

"You are such a hypocrite! You say that a child should have both their parents around, but if you had your way, I wouldn't be around for my kid and let me remind you that Rory is no longer a child! I think she's way beyond the childish dream of having her mom and dad together. She actually went to her father and told him to stay away from Lorelai because she was worried that he'd cause trouble between me and her mom."

"I don't believe you. Why would she do that?"

"I don't know. She's living with you now. Why don't you ask her?"

"Believe me, I will."

"You do that. In the meantime, I've got work to do. You know where the door is, Emily. Walk through it and go back to Hartford where you belong," Luke said firmly and returned to his work leaving Emily no choice but to leave the diner.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: To my faithful readers, I apologize for the dealy in getting this posted. I know I told several of you in review replies that I had planned to have it up on Sunday, but everytime I thought I had it done and went back through it to proof-read, I thought of something else I wanted to add to it. This is by far the longest chapter of this story yet. It probably should have been split into two chapters, but oh well. I promise the next chapter will contain the long-awaited Friday night dinner. I hope it was worth the wait. Thanks for your patience.

:)

Lanie

* * *

Lorelai wandered through the town square after she'd left the diner trying to enjoy the pet fair and take her mind off of her daughter, but it wasn't working. The pet fair was always something she and her daughter had enjoyed going to together. She was looking at the animals in the cages. She bent down to talk to a small black pig.

"Hello, Porky! Hello! Oh! Well, feeling a little guilty because of the You-L-T I had yesterday. That's right, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Oh!" She got up and turned to a couple of dogs."Hi, fellas, what's up? You both look like killers." She then turned to a shaggy-looking dog in a cage up on a table and petted him and cooed at him through the bars. "Hey! Hey, you! Oh, someone seems very happy!"

"He likes you, and he's picky," the attendant said.

"He's cute," she said and then added to the dog while Miss Patty approached her from behind, "You're cute. You're shaggy cute. Oh, we've got a love thing going on, don't we?"

"What are you doing?" Miss Patty asked her accusingly.

Lorelai jumped back from the cage startled and replied, "I'm just enjoying the animals, Patty."

Patty addressed the attendant saying, "Honey, this is not right. She can't have a love thing with a dog."

"She can't?"The attendant questioned.

Lorelai laughed nervously and said to Patty, "Yes! I can. Go about your business, there, Patty."

"You must have her name on some blacklist back there, don't you?"

"We don't have a blacklist," the attendant said nervously.

"But _this _is Lorelai Gilmore," Patty protested.

"Ignore her," Lorelai said. "This dog loves me. And the pig. The pig loved me."

Patty looked back toward the pig and said, "It looks dead."

"It's sleeping. They sleep, right?" Lorelai said with a nervous glance at the pig and then back to the attendant.

"Actually, that's very unusual for her to be sleeping," the woman said and called out to another attendant, "Meg, make sure the pig's okay."

"Yeah, the pig's fine," Meg called back.

"You didn't touch it, did you?" Patty said to Lorelai.

"I did not kill the pig, Patty," Lorelai said defensively.

"You've got a bad record, you've got to admit it," Patty pointed out.

"That thing with the hamster was a long time ago. It was a long time ago!" she said again to the attendant who only nodded in response."And it was only a hamster. I mean, it's really not in the same category as a dog or a pig, now, is it?"

"What about the rabbit?" Patty said forcing Lorelai to turn her attention back to her.

"Okay. The rabbit was sick when I got it. It was sick when I got it, "she repeated for the attendant's benefit."It was actually very humanitarian of me to take it in the first place."

"And that poor turtle! It was supposed to outlive you!" Patty said emphatically

"Okay, you're really kind of bringing down the pet fair, here, Patty."

Patty patted Lorelai's shoulder consolingly and said, "Honey, go see _March of the Penguins_. That's really as close to the animals as you should get."

Patty walked away leaving Lorelai staring at the attendant awkwardly. Lorelai chuckled nervously and said, "She's a comedienne, that one. She just gets a bit and she keeps on going, you know, even with one that's not funny." She bent down to face the dog again and said, "Hi. See you later, Kiddo." She turned to go when she saw Liz run toward her with her arms spread wide.

Emily stepped out of the diner just in time to see the blond woman who'd been all over Luke earlier launching herself at Lorelai in the middle of the town square. She couldn't hear what they were saying but Lorelai obviously held some sort of affection for this woman. She wondered if Lorelai would be that friendly with that woman if she'd known that just a couple of hours ago, her fiancée had been hugging and kissing the same woman. She stood outside _Luke's_ and watched as the woman examined her ring and they chatted amiably for a moment.

Emily approached them just in time to hear the blonde saying, "Oh! I'm a jerk!" Emily kept her distance a little so as not to get another tongue-lashing from her daughter but still remained close enough to hear what was being said.

"What?"Lorelai said.

"I forgot to ask you about Rory," Liz said apologetically.

Lorelai shifted a little and said uncomfortably and said, "Right." She sighed a little. She'd enjoyed a brief moment of relief from her pain in thinking about Rory, but it wasn't to last.

"So, she's staying here with you for the summer break?"

"Oh, well, actually…" Lorelai hesitated nit really wanting to talk about it, but Liz was going to be her sister-in-law so she felt it only right to tell her at least part of what was going on. "Luke didn't tell you about all this?"

"All what?"

"She's staying with her grandparents for the summer," she said very simply not wanting to go into great detail.

"Really?"

"For a change of pace. And she'll be…working, and…yeah…." Lorelai's voice trailed off sadness over her estrangement with her daughter enveloping her again.

"Oh, your whole extended family. You, your parents, so close. It's nice," Liz gushed.

Lorelai flashed her a big fake smile and said, "Yes, it is." _If you only knew, _she thought.

"And now you and Luke are having a baby. That's so exciting," Liz said exuberantly failing to notice Lorelai's heartache.

This time Lorelai smiled for real as she laid her hand on her stomach and said, "Yeah, it is."

"Ow," Liz said out of nowhere.

"What?" Lorelai asked in concern.

"My finger. Gotta' run. Bye.

"Bye, Liz," she said with a smile at her future sister-in-law. At least she knew there was one family member who was happy around her upcoming marriage to Luke. Liz hurried off while Lorelai sighed and turned back to the cute, shaggy dog. She smiled at the pet fair attendant.

"I'll take him, "she said happily as her mother approached her.

"That wasn't a very honest thing you did just now," Emily said coolly.

Lorelai sighed and turned toward her mother and spat, "What would you know about honesty? You keep hanging around here trying to dig up dirt on Luke, trying to drive him out of my life and leave me alone, so I don't think you're in a position to judge me."

"Well, you've got that woman thinking that we're all one big happy family."

"We could have been if you would just accept my life the way it is instead of ridiculing me for what it's not."

"I'm just saying that woman seems to like you and it's a shame you're lying to her. Though, she's lying to you too, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"What are you talking about? Liz wouldn't have any reason to lie to me about anything."

"Well, as much as she seems to like you, she also seems to like Luke as well, if you know what I mean. I saw the two of them together right after you left the diner this morning and they seemed quite…um…close," Emily said with a knowing grin thinking she'd finally gotten one over on Luke. Lorelai burst out laughing when she realized what her mother was getting at. "I'm glad you find it so amusing that the man you've pinned your entire future on is already being unfaithful to you when you're not even married yet. Maybe he just doesn't consider it cheating since there's no ring on his finger yet. Who knows with a man like that." Lorelai laughed even harder. Emily scowled and said, "What on earth is the matter with you? Why aren't you taking this seriously. The man who claims he loves you is running around on you and you're laughing."

When Lorelai's laughing fit subsided she said, "Mom, you are so off base here. Luke is not running around on me. Believe me, the way this town is, I'd have known about it by now."

"I'm telling you what I saw with my own eyes. That blonde you were just talking to threw her arms around him and he didn't seem to object in the least. Then I saw him kiss her, not ten minutes after he was kissing you when the two of you were making a very public spectacle of yourselves."

"Of course Luke's not going to object to Liz throwing herself at him. She was probably excited because she just heard that we were engaged and that I'm going to be her sister-in-law very soon."

"Sister-in-law," Emily questioned.

"Yes, Mom, as in the wife of her brother, and she'll be _my _sister-in-law because she's my fiancé's sister. Are you getting the picture here, Mom?"

"She's Luke's sister?"

"Yes, Mom, she is," Lorelai said defensively wondering why her mother was still determined to find fault with Luke for no good reason. "Luke would never cheat on me."

"Well, how was I to know that? I just saw your fiancé in the arms of another woman! What else was I supposed to think?"

"You're supposed to think that what I've been telling you is true. That Luke loves me and wants be with me as much as I want to be with him. You're supposed to put a little faith in your daughter that maybe, just maybe she knows what she's doing. Now, I have to applaud you for yet another attempt to split me and Luke up, but it failed and so will any new scheme you come up with. We are staying together. I don't care what dirt you think you've dug up on Luke. It's not going to be anything that I don't already know about him."

"How about the fact that he spent a night in jail?"

"No, Mom, he didn't," Lorelai said. Was she serious? Was she honestly digging up Luke's arrest in Litchfield more than a year ago when Rory had just been arrested for something way more serious?

"Yes, he did. I heard all about it from that loud-mouth dance teacher. He spent a night in jail for disturbing the peace when he beat up a man's car," Emily said triumphantly thinking that maybe now that she knew something about Luke that Lorelai didn't that maybe it would wake her daughter up to what kind of man she was involved with

"No, he didn't spend the night in jail. He could have, but he didn't and do you want to know why he didn't? Because I was there to bail him out!"

"You bailed him out of jail?" Emily asked incredulously

"Yes, I did. I bailed him out because that's the kind of thing friends do for each other. He needed my help and I helped. I bailed him out, picked him up and listened to him while he talked about what landed him there in the first place. He'd just caught his wife cheating. You hate him because he's divorced, but you never bothered to ask him what caused the divorce. That snotty little stick-figure that he was married to was screwing somebody else in their home. That's enough to set anyone off."

"That still doesn't justify a violent act like that."

"So, he used some poor judgment. Big deal! I seem to recall Dad doing something very similar when he purposely hit your car just a few months ago when he found out you'd been dating. And if I'm not mistaken, that was what ended up getting the two of you back together and while you were getting your relationship back together, you were going behind my back to try to get Christopher to break up mine! You should have been on cloud nine that you and Dad were working it out after your separation! That should have been enough to make you happy, but it wasn't. So what is it? You can only be happy if you're making my life miserable?"

"No, of course not! How dare you suggest such a thing!"

"Do you have any idea how much that hurt me? That you would purposely break up a relationship that has made me the happiest I've ever been in my life when I was nothing but supportive to you all through your insane separation with Dad?"

"I only did what I thought was best for you, just like I'm doing now! I only did that because I didn't want to see you make a mistake that you'd regret for the rest of your life!"

"I'm not interested in what _you_ think is best for me. I'm only interested in what _I _think is best for me and what's best for me is to continue what I've been doing. I'm making plans to spend the rest of my life with the man that I love, the man whose baby I'm carrying! Being loved by Luke is the best thing that's ever happened to me and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it work with him so that we'll be a real family. I'm even willing to give up a house I love to do the right thing for my future husband and my baby!"

"Why weren't you so worried about the welfare of your baby when you were expecting Rory? You refused to marry Christopher and you ran away and refused our help."

"I did those things because that _was_ the right thing to do for my baby! It wouldn't have been good for her to have parents that were married just because they had to be. There's no way that Christopher and I would have lasted if we'd gotten married so young. You said yourself that divorce destroys children, but that's exactly where things would have been headed if I'd married him. He wasn't ready to be a full-time father! He still isn't! He's a single dad to Gigi now and who did he come running to for help? Me! As for the running away, that was what I had to do when you wouldn't let me be a mother to my own child. Every time, I wanted to spend time with her or do something for her, I had my motherly rights taken away from me by that damned nanny that you hired. I had to figure out how to be a mother to her on my own and I couldn't do that with you and that nanny breathing down my neck."

"But a child needs a mother _and_ a father!"

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't be trying to take the father of my unborn child away from me and our baby!"

"I'm sorry to interrupt," the pet fair attendant interrupted a little awkwardly. "But do you still want the dog?"

"Yes," Lorelai said with a smile toward her shaggy new friend. "I still want him,"

"Lorelai, you can't be serious," Emily said. "You're actually thinking of taking this mongrel home?"

"Yes, I am and he's not a mongrel."

"I suppose not to you. You've clearly been with Luke too long," Emily said with a sneer.

"So, you're calling Luke a mongrel? Is that what I'm hearing here?" When Emily simply scowled she said, "That's it, Mom. I've had it with you! Go home! Go home and don't come back! I don't want to see you in my town again!"

"Lorelai!"

"Go, Mom," Lorelai said with a sigh. She turned back to the dog with a smile and said, "Hi, there, Buddy."

Emily turned from her daughter to see Luke loading boxes into the back of his truck and shuddered at the thought of him moving in with her daughter. She looked back at Lorelai and saw her playing with the disheveled dog and then looked back across the square to find that Luke had disappeared. She began to walk back across the square toward her car and reached it just as Luke had exited the diner with two more boxes in hand that he piled into the truck that was parked in front of her car. She started to walk toward him until he looked at her sternly and said, "Not one word, Emily!" before turning around and walking back into the diner. Emily stood stock-still for a moment fighting the urge to follow him and blast him again. She had a few things she wanted to say to him. Instead she bit back the withering comments knowing that as much as she dreaded him being in her home, he would be there for the following night's dinner where she would have the upper hand. She'd be able to say whatever she wanted to him without the prying eyes of Stars Hollow watching her every move. She realized now what a mistake it was to launch her attack in his territory. He was right about one thing. He had roots in this town. Everywhere she'd gone she'd heard people talk about him and how they'd known him and his parents and that while not everyone always got along with him, they all respected him. How could she compete with that? _Just wait until tomorrow, _she thought as if she was saying it to Luke. She got into her car and made her way back to her home in Hartford thinking all the way about her next course of action.

* * *

When Emily arrived at home, she made a beeline for the pool house to have a talk with her granddaughter. "Rory?"She called as she entered.

"Hi, Grandma," her granddaughter replied. "What's up?"

"I was hoping we could have a little talk," Emily said with a frown.

"Um…sure," Rory said nervously not at all liking the look on her grandmother's face. "About what?"

"About your mother and…Um….Luke," she said carefully making certain she said his name so as not to offend her granddaughter the way she had her daughter.

Rory stiffened at the mention of her mother, but tried to brush it off and asked casually, "What about them?"

"Are you aware that at this very moment, your mother's letting him move in with her?"

"No," Rory said. "Mom and I haven't spoken since I moved in here, so I really don't know anything about what's going on in her life." She hung her head slightly as she thought of the fact that after numerous messages her mother still hadn't called her back. She'd wanted to tell her how happy she was that she was going to marry Luke and say she was sorry that she didn't get her messages, but her mother was stubbornly ignoring her. "So, Luke's moving in, wow."

"I suppose it was only a matter of time," Emily said nonchalantly trying to act like it didn't bother her in order to steer the conversation where she wanted it to go. "I mean, the two of them have been getting more serious lately. I actually wondered what was keeping them from taking this step sooner."

"I don't know," Rory said. "They've both been a little slow when it comes to seeing what's right in front of their faces. Look how long it took them to get together in the first place."

"I know. I saw the attraction between the two of them when I first met Luke at your sixteenth birthday party. Maybe they were both just afraid of getting hurt, "She said as if musing to herself. "Or perhaps it was you being there that held them back from taking this step," Emily suggested.

"What? Me? No, you're wrong, Grandma. I've been nothing but supportive since they started dating. I love Luke. He's been really good for Mom, plus he's been really good to me. You saw how upset I was when you broke them up!"

"Yes, I recall," Emily said with a frown wishing that she hadn't brought that up. She'd hoped that her granddaughter would have gotten over that the night she yelled at her about it at dinner.

"I even went to my dad and told him to stay away from Mom so he wouldn't end up causing trouble between them."

"I see," Emily said a little down-hearted to find that Luke had been telling the truth about Rory going to her father. "But that's not really what I meant," she continued.

"What _did _you mean?"

"Nothing," Emily said. "It's not important."

"Grandma, come on, say what's on your mind."

"Well, I just think it's very interesting that your mother told you that she didn't want you coming home for the summer and a mere week later, she's asking Luke to move in. It seems to me that maybe you'd be in the way if she wanted to spend some time alone with Luke. I mean, I hardly think that the timing of these two events is a coincidence."

"Grandma, I think you're wrong. I've been home for the weekend several times when Luke's been there. I don't think that Mom would try to get rid of me just to make room for Luke," she stated firmly, but in the back of her mind she had to wonder if what her grandmother was saying had some truth to it. It _was _pretty coincidental that Luke was moving in right after she'd been told not to come home for the summer.

"Perhaps you're right," Emily said with a satisfied smile at seeing the doubt cross Rory's face. "Maybe I'm looking at this wrong. She told your grandfather and me that she'd suspected she was pregnant for a while now. Maybe your mother simply wanted to make sure there would be room for the new baby," she said thoughtfully as if the thought had just occurred to her.

"Yeah, she did tell me she thought she might be pregnant," Rory said a little stung by what her grandmother was suggesting. She sighed as she thought about how the argument with her mom was so perfectly timed with her finding out that she was pregnant. Maybe she knew that it wasn't a false alarm like she'd insisted it was. Could her mother really replace her that easily? She thought back to her mother's words to her when talking about her pregnancy scare 'I just got rid of you,' she'd said. Rory had thought she'd meant it as a joke, but now she had to wonder. Had this been brewing in the back of her mother's head all along if it turned out that she _was _pregnant?

"She told you about that?" Emily was floored. What kind of a mother would share that kind of information with her young daughter?

"Yeah, she did. She was totally wigging out about it, too. She was too scared to even tell Luke about it at first since they hadn't been back together that long," she said. "But if he bought the Twickham house, I guess he knows about it now."

"Yes, he does. He seems quite happy about it too. He said that he'd always wanted a child of his own with your mother," Emily said twisting the knife in Rory's heart a little deeper. She knew that Rory had a fatherly affection for Luke, though she couldn't see why. "I don't know what I'm thinking about," Emily said changing tactics a little. "Maybe he bought the bigger house to make sure that there'd be plenty of room for both you and the new baby. He seems like he cares quite a lot about you."

"Yeah, he does," she said but wasn't so sure now. How would he feel about her now that he had a kid of his own on the way? He'd always been like a father to her, but maybe that was because he just wanted his own kids and he was using her for a substitute. Maybe now that her mom was pregnant, he wouldn't need her to be his surrogate daughter anymore.

"That must be what he's thinking about, making sure that you'll have your own space in the new house. Of course that means they'll be selling the old house," she said casually.

"Selling our house?"Rory said. She hadn't thought about that part of the equation. Would her mother really sell her childhood home without talking to her about it first?

"Of course. It only makes sense. It's not like they'll need _two _houses," she said using Kirk's words from earlier. Thinking of Kirk gave her another idea, "When I was in Stars Hollow today, I overheard your mother talking to that gangly fellow…Kurt?"Emily said playing dumb on purpose.

"Kirk," Rory corrected.

"Yes, Kirk. That's it! Anyway, your mother was talking to him about possibly selling the house to him when they get ready to move into the new house."

"Oh," Rory said sadly. While she liked Kirk, she couldn't imagine him living in her house. What was her mother thinking about?

"Oh, listen to me going on and on when there are a million things to do at the house and your grandfather will be home any minute. Will you be joining us for dinner?"

"Um…no…Logan and I are going out tonight," she said half-heartedly plagued by the doubts her grandmother had placed in her head regarding her mother's true motivation for telling her that she couldn't come home for the summer.

"All right, but you'll join us tomorrow? Your mother and Luke will be here."

"They will?" she said a little happier that she'd see her mother and maybe get to put some of this tension between them to rest.

"Yes, sort of an impromptu engagement celebration," Emily said light-heartedly as if she were in full support of her daughter's upcoming wedding.

"I'll be there," she said.

"Good, I'll see you later," Emily said as she made her exit satisfied that her work was done now that she'd planted the seed of doubt in Rory's mind. She knew that if Rory didn't approve, Lorelai would never follow through with her insane idea of marrying the greasy diner man. She almost skipped into the main house as she thought she might have finally found a way to end this once and for all.

Emily's elation was not to last though. She'd barely set foot inside the door when her husband's voice rang out, "Where the hell have you been?"

"As I told you this morning, I've been in Stars Hollow," she said growing weary of her husband's attitude.

"I remember. I also distinctly remember telling you to leave Stars Hollow and stay out of Lorelai's life," he reminded her sternly. "What have you been doing there all day?"

"Only what a concerned mother should," she said evasively.

"What have you been doing, Emily," he demanded more forcefully. "And why didn't you leave Stars Hollow when I told you to?"

"When you told me to? What gives you the right to tell me where to go or what to do? If I want to visit my daughter, I will and you will _not _tell me that I can't!"

"I wouldn't worry about it if I thought it was just a visit, but I know you, Emily and I know when you're up to something. You're trying to get between them again, aren't you?"

"Well, so what? Someone needs to! Lorelai obviously isn't capable of seeing clearly when it comes to this man!"

"I think she's seeing things perfectly clearly. You're the one who's not seeing things for the way they are! Lorelai is carrying Luke's child and this time she wants to do what's right and get married and settle down and I, for one, am in full support of that!"

"Then you're a fool," Emily spat back at her husband.

"No, Emily, you're the fool if you can't see that what you're doing is wrong!"

"No," she argued back. "What Lorelai is doing is wrong! Having a child with a man who can barely take care of himself, let alone her and a child!"

"I'd hardly say that Luke can't take care of himself. He's spent years living in a building that he already owns, so that's cut down on his living expenses leaving him plenty of money to put a down payment on a beautiful house for them to live in once they're married."

"I saw that 'beautiful' house as you called it. It's a complete wreck! There's a hole in the floor and the banisters are practically rotting away. It's in no way a suitable place for our grandchild to grow up in!"

"Luke admitted that it needs some work and he's willing to put the money into it to make it fit to live in. That house has great potential and it was built in an era when they built houses to last. All the repairs that it needs are simply from the effects of age."

"You're crazy! I saw the inside of that house today and it's a death-trap for a child! I don't understand what that man is thinking! How could any father want to expose his child to a danger like that? What I really can't understand is what Lorelai is doing? If she wanted more children, why couldn't she have picked a more appropriate mate to have them with?"

"Emily, has it even crossed your mind that no matter who the child's father is, that this baby is still our flesh and blood? Do you really want things to be like they were before where we didn't get to know our grandchild until she was half-grown?"

"Do you think that I honestly want anything to do with a grandchild that was conceived under the worst of circumstances? Lorelai admitted herself that this pregnancy wasn't planned and that it only came about because she and that classless lout she's mixed up with were drunk!"

"Do you really think that matters?"

"Of course it matters!"

"It doesn't, Emily! However it came about, Lorelai is pregnant and she should be with the father of her child," he shouted.

"Christopher is the father of her child too! Have you forgotten that?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten that, but I'd hardly call him an appropriate mate for Lorelai! He's done nothing for her or Rory for that matter! He's taken no fatherly responsibility her entire life whereas Luke has! I've heard numerous times from Rory and Lorelai about Luke being there when they needed him! He has an obvious fatherly affection for Rory and he loves Lorelai unconditionally and he's willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy!"

"You wouldn't say that if you'd seen what I saw today! When I walked into that house, do you know what I saw? Our bright beautiful daughter doing his laundry, working around the house as if she were a maid again! How happy do you think she's going to be if she spends the rest of her life slaving like a servant for that man? If she were with Christopher, she wouldn't have to do such things. He'd be able to hire some household help so she could concentrate her energies on the inn where they belong!"

"And she'd be miserable! She doesn't love Christopher and she doesn't want your frivolous life of cocktail parties and fundraisers! I think she made that very clear when she ran away from home and I'm starting to see now why she did," he bellowed as he made his way to the closet off the foyer and reached for the suitcase within it.

"What do you think you're doing with that?" she demanded knowing that that was the suitcase he kept packed in case he needed to make some emergency trip for business.

"I'm leaving! I can't look at you right now!"

"What?" she said. "Just where do you plan on going?"

"To Stars Hollow to try to fix the mess you've made!" he said as he headed for the door while thinking of Emily's assertion this morning that Luke and Lorelai had split. If that were the case, he felt the need, just this once, to embrace Emily's habit of meddling for the good of their daughter. After his conversation with Luke the previous day, he couldn't imagine that he would just walk out on Lorelai, but he had to be sure.

"No, this is _not _going to happen," she said as she tugged on his arm to try to stop him.

"Let go of me, Emily! I'm going!"

"What do you think is going to happen if you go to Stars Hollow? Do you think Lorelai will just welcome you with open arms? You're no closer to her than I am!"

"I don't know. Maybe she won't, but I have to try. I've just started to repair my relationship with Lorelai and I'm not going to let that slip away from me. That's something that you ought to consider yourself. If she slams the door in my face, so be it! Maybe the Dragonfly will have a room available, perhaps the same one you stayed in last night," he said icily. "Either way, I can't stay here, not with you acting like this." He shook off her grip on his arm and left the house, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

Lorelai spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for her new pet, while Luke, as promised, took as many of his things to the house as possible without making the house too cluttered until they could get into their own place. He wondered where Lorelai was when he got there but figured maybe she'd gone to spend some time at the inn since she'd been home during the early part of the day. He unpacked the things he'd brought and returned to the diner until the dinner rush was over then returned to the house ready to take Lorelai out at her request.

"Hey, you ready to go?" he said as he stepped inside the front door.

"Come in, come in! I want to show you something," Lorelai said excitedly.

"Okay," he said skeptically.

Lorelai giggled excitedly and said, "Or, more accurately, I want to show you _someone_." When they entered the living room she said, "Ta-da," then her mood changed abruptly when she realized her new dog was nowhere to be seen. "Oh. Where'd he go?"

"Where'd who go? What's all this crap?" indicating the plethora of stuff piled over every surface in the living room that hadn't been there when he'd dropped his stuff off in the afternoon.

Lorelai disregarded Luke's questions and began searching the living room. "Oh. Yoo-hoo! Come on, dude! We had it all rehearsed and everything!" When she spotted him she said, "Ah-Ha!" he bent down behind the chair in the corner and popped up with the shaggy dog. "Ta-da!"

"It's a dog," Luke said in surprise.

"Yeah, very good," she said sardonically then said to the dog,"He's smart, too! Not as smart as you." She set the dog down on the coffee table.

"What are you doing with a dog?"

"I bought him. Doesn't he look happy?"

"Yeah, I guess. You bought a dog!"Luke said still stunned.

"Yeah, and he loves me. And he doesn't give his love easily. The only drawback's the name. Coco. It's too cutesy. But he's a rescue, so I don't want to freak him out by giving him a new name right away, so I'm going to get to the name I want to give him in baby steps. For the first week I'll call him Coco, to get him acclimated…"

"Acclimated," Luke repeated still trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Second week I'm going to call him Cokie, third week Kooky, fourth week Tooky."

"So you're going to name him Tooky," Luke questioned with a shake of his head.

"No, I'm going to name him Paul Anka, but it's going to take a while to get to Paul Anka."

"Yeah. I'd say so," he said with another skeptical look at the dog.

"And you know, this little guy has already taught me something I didn't know. Just because they make it for a dog, doesn't mean a dog is going to like it! Toys, including squeakies, and the, uh, wazzup variety…" She squeezed a monkey that says 'wazzup' to demonstrate. "No interest. Rawhide bones, no interest. Popcorn, scared of it."

"Scared of popcorn?" Luke questioned with a bemused smile. Leave it to Lorelai to find a dog just as neurotic as her.

"Yeah, and also of tissue holders, paperbacks, CD's, framed pictures and lint. Oh, and when I drink something, he gets freaked out, like I'm going to die and I have to pick him up and rock him like a baby until he calms down. It's been quite a first day for us."

"Look, should I ask the question that immediately came to mind when I first saw the thing, or should I just shut up?"

"No. Shoot."

"Is it okay for you-"

"That hamster was defective," Lorelai said defensively cutting him off. "Period. Plus they only live, like, three years. I looked it up. And, and he would have been dead by now anyway. So, world, stop with the hamster already!"

"But the turtle-"

"The same thing with the turtle!"

"Yeah, but they live to be ninety!"

"I will take care of this dog. I promise. Now, would you like a beer?"

"Sure," he said

"'Kay. Just distract him while I'm drinking, and don't let him see the…" she lowered her voice to a whisper "…bottle opener." Luke followed Lorelai into the kitchen where she got a beer out of the refrigerator for Luke and a bottle of water for herself.

"How much did you spend on all this?"

"Tons," she answered honestly.

"For a stupid dog," Luke grumbled.

"You're acting like you don't like dogs."

"I _don't_ like dogs," he confirmed as Paul Anka walked into the room.

"Shhh! He heard you!"

"Oh, he speaks English?" Luke said sarcastically.

"Since when do you not like dogs?"

"Since all the times I made that really, really clear, which is every time I have ever been around a dog."

Lorelai looked shocked. "What is there not to like about dogs?"

At her question, Luke took a seat at the table and launched into full rant mode, "They're dirty. They're a pain to train. They're a pain to wash. They bark when they shouldn't. They jump on you when you don't want them to. They chew things. They shed. They lick themselves. They make your car smell. They make your house smell. And they make _you_ smell."

"You know, I think it's very sad that you've lost the little boy in you," Lorelai said as she joined him at the table.

"The little boy didn't like dogs either," Luke groused as he took a swig of his beer.

"Oh, you know? I just realized what this is! This is our thing," she said indicating the two of them.

"What thing?"

"This tradition of ours. You claim to hate everything at first, but it's just your initial stance in a negotiation. And then we talk and our opinions merge and we find a happy middle."

"No, a lot of times it's just how I feel and my mind doesn't change," Luke said as Paul Anka started to eat.

Lorelai started whispering excitedly, "Oh, he's eating! Let's go!" They got up slowly. "But don't make any sudden movements, and don't drink, and don't look at him! He's very self-conscious about his eating. I'm the same way! That's how I know this is going to work! Go, go, go" she said as she pushed him out the back door. They stood and watched him through the window.

"You do realize your dog has just driven us out of the house," Luke complained.

"Don't worry. He's a quick eater. Come on," she said as they walked around the porch to the bench in the front.

"This is silly," Luke said in irritation.

"What? We can hang out out here. It's a nice night." They sat down facing each other. "Okay. Now fill me in. How was your day?"

"Well, aside from another confrontation with your mother, not bad."

"Ugh! I so don't want to talk about her, right now. What else?"

"I talked to some contractors about the house," he said starting to get excited.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Now that we've made the offer, they'll let us in, we can start planning stuff, remodeling, whatever."

"Good," she said. She'd been in the house when it was a museum and knew it needed to be re-done a little before they could move into it.

"And as soon as we're out of escrow we can start work."

"Cool. Excellent," she said with smile loving how happy he was about the idea of fixing up the house that was soon going to be their home.

"I was thinking we could even pull the crew over here, do some touchups before selling."

"Wait. Touchups? Where? Here?" She was beginning to panic like she had earlier at the mention of selling the house she'd raised her daughter in.

"Yeah. It hasn't been painted in a while. Fixing it up will help it sell."

"Right. You know what I've been thinking?"

"What?"

"Maybe we should hang on to this house," she suggested.

"To rent?" Luke asked trying to gauge what was on her mind.

"No. Not to rent. To use in some other way," she said as she began wracking her brain for things the house could be used for.

"What other way?"

"Uh, I don't know. It could be like a paint studio."

"We don't paint," Luke pointed out.

"Well, maybe we'll start. Maybe it's the lack of a studio that's kept us from realizing our love of watercolors."

"I don't have a love of watercolors," he said starting to get what was going on but not sure if he should say anything. He didn't want to upset her again.

"Or I could use it as my recording studio. That would be cool, huh? And when I'm not laying down tracks I could rent it out to Korn or Iggy Pop or someone. Right? You and me, just hanging with Iggy Pop, rockin' out. Telling stories… Ig's got stories," she was rambling and she knew it. She just couldn't bear the thought of selling this house while things were still so bad with Rory.

"Uh-huh," Luke said letting her ramble knowing that it was something she needed.

"Or we could use it as a safe house in case we decide to take up a life of crime," she said knowing it was getting silly now.

"I doubt we're going to do that," he said patiently letting her just go on.

"Well, we could be wrongly accused of a crime we did not commit. And then we'd have to hide out until society realized the mistake. And then, we'd be like, 'Hey. No hard feelings, it happens. This is a great country, and thank God we had the safe house.'" She smiled slightly at the fact that he was just letting her go on and on and not saying a word about it.

"If you want, we can just hang on to it, rent it out," he suggested.

Lorelai wrinkled her nose and said, "I don't want anyone else living in it." _Not without Rory's ok,_ she added to herself.

"They can't live in it, but they can record songs in it," he said knowing where her insecurity was coming from. She didn't want to do anything with this house until things were settled with Rory.

"I just think we could use this place. Think about it, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, we'll think about it," he said and leaned in brushing a light kiss to her lips letting her know without words that he got it.

"Okay," she said with a smile as she peeked in the window then gushed, "Oh, look, he's done! And he's in there fast asleep!"

"So, I'm guessing we're not going out tonight?"

"No, unless you want to," she said hoping that he wouldn't want to go out. She didn't want to leave Paul Anka alone on his first night in the house.

"I'm cool with staying in," he said willing to do whatever it took to keep her happy.

"Do you still feel like cooking? I know you had a busy day, so if you don't, that's ok. We can just order pizza or Chinese or something."

"I'll cook," he said. "Can we go back in now?"

"Okay. Just be careful, because he gets scared when you wake him up."

"Of course," he said with a smile as they made their way toward the front door.

"Oh, and, uh, try not to say any words that begin with the letter 'Q,'."

"You got it," he said as they entered the house where he went straight to the kitchen and began to prepare for the dinner he'd planned earlier in the day while Lorelai went to check on Paul Anka.

* * *

Richard smiled a little as he pulled into his daughter's driveway behind Luke's truck, happy to see that it was parked there. Maybe that meant that his wife's meddling hadn't caused irreparable damage. He was starting to rethink his decision to pay a visit to Lorelai. If Emily _had_ caused trouble between her and Luke, she may think that he was involved and not want to see him. He'd mulled over the situation all the way from Hartford to Stars Hollow, trying to figure out which way he should go first. Should he stop at the inn first to see if he could book a room for the night, should he pay another visit to the diner to talk to Luke again, or should he go to his daughter first? He'd decided on the latter, hoping that he could at least get to the bottom of Emily's machinations, since she wasn't willingly sharing what she'd been up to. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, reliving the harsh words they'd said to each other before he'd walked out the door. He hadn't intended to leave like that, but he was so furious with Emily, he couldn't stand to be in the same room with her. He recalled how their bitter separation had begun with an argument about him going after Jason while Lorelai was dating him and Emily's fear that it would drive their daughter away. He found it ironic that a little more than a year later, Emily attacking the man in Lorelai's life was on the verge of driving her away. This time, he wasn't going to let it happen, especially now that there was a new grandchild involved. If that meant another war with his wife, he was willing to accept that. He let out another sigh before getting out of his car and ringing Lorelai's doorbell.

Luke was in the kitchen when the doorbell rang while Lorelai was in the living room. Upon hearing the bell Paul Anka took off up the stairs and out of sight. "Hon, can you get the door," Lorelai called to Luke while she went chasing after her dog.

"You got it," he said as he made his way to the door and was surprised to find his future father-in-law on the other side. "Richard…um…hi," he stammered.

"Hello, Luke," Richard said warmly. "May I come in?"

"Yeah, sure, sorry," he said as he opened the door wider to allow Richard to enter the house. "So…um…what brings you here?"he asked awkwardly while closing the door behind Richard.

"I just wanted to pay my daughter a visit. Is she home?"

"Yeah, she's upstairs," Luke said. "You want me to get her?"

"That's quite all right. I can wait until she comes back down here."

"Ok," Luke said. "I…uh…need to get back to the kitchen so I can check on dinner."

"Oh, are you cooking?"

"Yeah, so I should…." He trailed off. While Richard had said he approved of his upcoming marriage to his daughter, Luke still didn't really know how to talk to his future father-in-law, especially since he'd kind of put his foot in his mouth the day before with his sarcasm.

"By all means," Richard said. "Do you mind if I join you while I wait for Lorelai?"

"No, as long as you don't mind me working in the kitchen," Luke said as he headed back to the kitchen.

"Not at all," Richard said as he followed Luke. "My, something smells wonderful in here," he exclaimed as he entered the room.

"Thanks, lamb chops," Luke explained as he resumed preparing dinner.

"Would that be the same lamb chops that the T_imes _critic raved about?"

"You saw the review?" Luke asked.

"Yes, I was quite impressed," Richard replied as he took a seat at the kitchen table. "I also saw that he not only praised your cooking at the inn, but at the diner as well. I can see why. You seem quite at home in the kitchen."

"Well, it's like I said yesterday, I've been cooking since I was a kid. I enjoy doing it and Lorelai loves food, so it kinda works out nicely," Luke said with a chuckle.

"Oh my God, something smells amazing in here," Lorelai gushed as she entered the room.

"Did you find your fraidy-cat dog?"Luke asked with a bemused smile.

"Yeah, the little chicken skittered under our bed and he won't come out."

"As long as he's not _in _our bed," Luke grumbled. "Leave it to you to find a dog that's scared of his own shadow."

Richard had not failed to notice the word _our _coming so easily out of both his daughter and her fiancé's mouths. He desperately wanted to find out if that meant that they'd continued with their plans for moving in together and planning their future in spite of his snobbish wife's attempts to split them up, but was afraid to ask. Instead he asked, "You have a dog? Since when?"

"I just brought him home today," Lorelai said. "and he's not a fraidy-cat," she added with a glare at Luke. "He's just still getting used to us and this house."

"I see," Richard said. "So, Lorelai, are you feeling all right?" he asked awkwardly. He and his daughter hadn't talked since before he'd found out that she was pregnant and he wasn't sure how to approach the subject, but wanted to somehow let her know that his didn't share her mother's disapproval. Sure, he'd have preferred if the two of them were married before starting a family, but they seemed to be happy together, so who was he to judge?

"Um…I'm ok," She answered just as awkwardly not sure what to say to her father after the non-stop confrontations with her mother the last two days. "I've been a little sick, but I'm basically ok."

"A little?"Luke snorted. "I thought you were trying to re-create the pea soup scene from _The Exorcist _in the bathroom this morning," he said trying to inject some humor into the conversation to lighten the overwhelming tension in the room.

"Hush, you," she said in a playful tone. "You just go about your business there and get my dinner finished so I can feed this kid of yours."

"It's almost done. You wanna set the table so we can eat?"

"Yeah," she said. "You're welcome to join us, Dad. That is, if you want to," she said hesitantly, not wanting to create more tension but at the same time hoping that after his talk with Luke yesterday, she was on her way to having approval from at least one of her parents.

"Um…"Richard began just as hesitantly. "I don't want to intrude. I fact, I should be going. I…um…shouldn't have come here without calling first."

"You're not intruding, Richard," Luke said. "You're more than welcome to stay for dinner if you'd like. There's plenty of food. I know how your daughter likes to eat, so I always make more than enough!"

"Hey!"Lorelai protested while Luke chuckled.

"Besides, it will give all of us a chance to talk," Luke suggested. He wondered if he knew by now exactly what Emily had been up to.

"Well, if you're sure I won't be bothering you," Richard said still a little hesitant. He didn't know how this evening would go if Lorelai was angry with her mother.

"Dad, you're not bothering us," Lorelai said as she took three dinner plates out of the cabinet and set them around the table, depositing one of them directly in front of where her father was seated. "There, now you have to stay. It'd be rude not to,"

"I guess I will stay then," he said glad that whatever Emily had been up to didn't seem to be affecting Lorelai's feelings toward him. "I have to admit, I'm a little hungry. I left the house without having dinner and the food does smell delicious."

"It does, doesn't it," she agreed as she reached around Luke for glasses giving him an affectionate squeeze from behind on her way. "My man knows how to cook," she added with a delighted smile that her dad had given Luke a compliment.

"Hey, back off, Woman! I don't want you hair in the food," he said jokingly as he stirred the vegetables in the sauté pan on the stove.

"Fine," she said with a pout moving slightly away from him as she continued her task."Where did that pan come from anyway? I don't remember having one like that."

"Like you'd ever need to," Luke quipped. "You don't cook." When he saw the pouty demanding look on Lorelai's face he added, "I brought it from the apartment while you were out spending God knows how much on that psychotic mutt."

"Paul Anka is not psychotic. He's just special. He needs lots of TLC," She said defending her new pet as she sat across from her father.

"Paul Anka?"Richard questioned.

"The dog," Luke explained as he opened the oven door and began transferring the lamp chops to a serving platter.

"Ahhh," Richard said nodding in understanding. Richard took a stab at steering the conversation around to the topic that was the point of his visit. Obviously, Emily's assertion that Lorelai and Luke had broken up again was unfounded, but he needed more information. "So, have the two of you set a wedding date yet," he queried in a light tone, trying to keep it casual but still trying to get the gist of things.

"June 25th," Luke and Lorelai answered together and then both laughed.

"June 25th," Richard said thoughtfully. "That's very soon."

"The sooner the better," Luke said with a smile as he set the rest of the food on the table before taking his seat next to Lorelai and the three of them began to eat.

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed between bites of her dinner. "We thought it might be nice if we were married before our kid makes its appearance in the world." She glanced warily at her father still not quite sure how he felt about all of this. Luke said that he hadn't been angry upon finding out that she was pregnant, but who really knew what was going on underneath his cool exterior? She wondered why her dad was here, but didn't quite have the nerve to ask. She wondered if her mother had gotten to him and he was here to voice his disapproval after all.

"Very wise," Richard said thoughtfully with a sigh of relief that whatever Emily had been doing hadn't changed their determination to build a life together. He decided he'd had enough of beating around the bush and said, "So, I understand that your mother paid a visit to Stars Hollow today," he began and noticed that both Luke and Lorelai tensed at the mention of his interfering wife.

"Yeah, she did," Luke said stiffly.

"Is that why you're here, Dad? To finish what mom started?"She asked accusingly, trying to find out what her father's motivation was for his unscheduled visit and wondering again if maybe her mother had managed to poison his mind against Luke.

"Certainly not! While I don't know exactly what your mother's been up to, I do know that she and I are not exactly in agreement about your where your future is headed." He glanced at Luke and continued, "Perhaps your fiancé didn't tell you, but I was here yesterday to let him know that I approve of your upcoming marriage and to warn him that your mother was planning something."

"He told me," Lorelai said. "I…um….just didn't know what to think. Mom's been running around like a crazy person, doing everything she can to try to split us up and…I don't know…when I saw you were here tonight…I thought…"her voice faltered and she found herself unable to complete her thought.

"…That I might take up your mother's habit of meddling?"Richard suggested.

"Yeah, I guess. I mean, you weren't exactly thrilled when I was pregnant with Rory."

"Of course I wasn't. You were sixteen! How was I supposed to react?" he said. "You had such a bright future and that was all changed when you got pregnant with Rory. Your mother and were both extremely disappointed by the situation, but this is not the same."

"How do you figure? According to Mom, I'm doing nothing but repeating the same mistake from my past."

"That's where your mother and I disagree," Richard said bitterly reflecting on the arguing that had gone on between them over the situation. "Your mother is still dwelling on the past, while I've got the sense to see that the circumstances are entirely different this time. While I'm not exactly pleased by the fact that you're pregnant and unmarried again, I realize that the two of you are working to remedy that and I'm happy that you're happy. That's all I've ever wanted for you, Lorelai."

"Thanks, Dad," Lorelai said with a smile. "So, you're not freaked out by all of this? I mean, with the fact that you've got another grandchild on the way without us being married first? You don't think it's just me being irresponsible again?"

"Not at all," he said sincerely. "I realize that Luke is not Christopher."

Luke snorted at this and said, "I think that's Emily's big problem with me." He couldn't help but think that there was no way that they were going to be able to live in peace as long as Emily was determined to break them up and cajole Lorelai back into a relationship with Christopher.

Richard simply looked at Luke and sensed that he was holding back what he really wanted to say. "I'm sorry if she's been hard on you," Richard said apologetically.

"Don't apologize for her," Luke said angrily. "I know she's your wife, but you have no idea what she's been up to or how much she's hurt Lorelai the last two days!"

"Luke, don't," Lorelai pleaded not wanting to be at war with both of her parents and also worried that her situation was causing tension in her parents' marriage. Now that she knew for sure that her dad was on their side, she didn't want to destroy that by telling him what her mother had been up to.

"I'm sorry, Lorelai, but your mother has gotten on my last nerve! Who does she think she is, trying to tell me that I'd be doing the right thing by leaving you and our child?"

"She actually said that to you?"Richard asked incredulously.

"Yeah, that was after she realized that trying to buy me off wouldn't work!"

"Luke, please," Lorelai said not wanting to relive the hurt her mother had caused by trying to bribe Luke into leaving her.

"She did what?"Richard exploded rising from the table angrily.

"See what you started?"Lorelai said with a frustrated glare at her fiancé as she also rose from the table and hurried toward the living room.

Luke jumped from his seat saying, "Lorelai, wait!"

He quickly caught up to her and grabbed her arm to stop her from bolting. She tried to pull away from him and said, "No! This is exactly what I didn't want! We've got enough drama in our lives without creating more!" She was once again on the verge of tears over her mother's scheming.

"I'm sorry," Luke said after seeing the pain on her face. He pulled her into his arms and held her close. "I'm so sorry. I just can't stand that she's hurt you so much," he said and brushed a light kiss to her hair as she buried her face in his chest. Lorelai relaxed a little into his embrace, letting him know without words that she accepted his apology. He held her while she let the tears fall rocking her slightly to comfort her, much as he'd done earlier in the day.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," Richard said. He'd watched this interaction in silence not sure what to say. He had expected Luke would be angry, but it had just struck him that Emily's attack on him wasn't what had made him angry. It was the effect it was having on Lorelai that had him riled. As he watched his daughter sinking into Luke's strong embrace, it occurred to him for the first time that even Lorelai's incredible strength could be broken. He recalled Luke's words about how defeated she'd looked upon hearing the news that Rory had dropped out of school and moved in with them. He was very glad that she had someone as caring as Luke to lean on in a time like this. "I shouldn't have come here and stirred all this up. For that, I'm truly sorry. I didn't mean to upset either one of you."

Lorelai pulled back from Luke and wiped her tears away. She turned back toward her father and said, "This isn't your fault, Dad. This is all Mom. I just don't want you two fighting again because of me."

"We're not fighting because of you," Richard said emphatically.

"But you _are _fighting, aren't you? I kinda got the sense that you were when you said that you and Mom disagreed about my future with Luke."

"That's for me and your mother to work out. I don't want you involved in all of that. I only came here tonight because she told me this morning that Luke had walked out on you and I came to see if you were okay and to see if there was a way I could help repair whatever damage your mother might have done."

"Boy, are you behind the times," Lorelai said with a sardonic laugh. "Luke and I had a stupid fight about Mom trying to buy him off, but we worked it out ourselves."

"Yes, we did," Luke said with a smile as he recalled the previous evening's events that led to them making up. "Are you ok," he asked Lorelai who nodded with a slight sniffle.

"I'm sincerely relieved to hear that, though I gathered that you had worked things out when I saw Luke's truck in the driveway. Now, what do you say we all sit back down and finish this wonderful dinner? I must say, Luke, the _Times _critic was quite right in praising your cooking skills," he said in an effort to change the subject resuming his seat at the table.

"Thanks," Luke said with a smile as he took his seat followed by Lorelai.

"So, Dad, how bad are you and Mom fighting," Lorelai probed. "I mean, is it as bad as last time? 'Cause with Rory living in the pool house now, that could pose a problem."

"I'm sure we'll work it out," he said though he wasn't so sure at the moment. He was very angry with his wife right now, especially after hearing that she'd resorted to trying to buy Luke off.

"You don't sound entirely convinced of that," she said still trying to find out the extent of their argument.

"I'd rather not talk about it, if you don't mind, Lorelai."

"Does Mom even know you're here?"she said, not willing to give up. She couldn't stand the thought that her life choices were causing her parents to have issues.

"Yes, she does, unlike when she took off last night," Richard said bitterly when he realized that his daughter wasn't going to let him off the hook. "I didn't even know until this morning that she'd spent the night here in Stars Hollow at the inn."

"The inn?" Lorelai questioned. "My inn?"

"Yes, Lorelai, your inn. You didn't know?"

"No, I haven't been at the inn all day."

"Isn't that unusual for you?"

"I called Sookie early this morning to get her and Michel to cover for Lorelai," Luke answered before Lorelai had a chance to. "She was upset over Emily's visit last night and the argument we'd had about it. Plus she was up and down half the night getting sick, so when she finally was able to sleep soundly, I thought it was best to just let her sleep."

"Very sensible, "Richard said nodding in agreement. "Was that before or after I spoke to you?"

"After," Luke said. "When I talked to you though, I had no idea that Emily had gone to the inn. I only knew that she'd come here and upset Lorelai again."

"And that I told her to get out," Lorelai interjected.

"I understand, Luke," Richard said. "I don't expect you to be Emily's keeper. I'm sorry if I disturbed you last night. It's just that when Emily stormed out of the house, I had a feeling she was on her way here to stir up trouble and I was looking for Lorelai more than anything. When she wasn't here, naturally I assumed that your house was the most logical place to check next."

"You weren't wrong, though that most likely won't be happening in the future," Luke said.

"Luke…"Lorelai said in a cautionary tone.

Luke reached for her hand and squeezed it gently to reassure her that things would be fine and said, "He needs to know, Lorelai. Isn't it better that he hears it from us first, rather than your mother?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she said.

"Hear what?" Richard asked a little bewildered. "Things _are _ok between the two of you, aren't they?"

"Yes, Dad, they are. Great, in fact. So good that…um…." She hesitated, knowing that she needed to tell her father the truth since he was being supportive, but not sure how to get the words out. She didn't want him to freak out or get angry that they were living together before they were married.

"Just say what's on your mind, Lorelai," her father said.

"I asked Luke to move in here with me. We just made it official today."

"Is that all," Richard asked with a chuckle.

"What do you mean, is that all? You're not spazzing out about this whole 'living in sin' thing?"

"No, Lorelai. I am indeed not 'spazzing' out," he said with a bemused smile. "After my conversation with Luke a few nights ago, I assumed that it would be happening soon."

"What conversation." Lorelai questioned shifting her gaze from her father to her fiancé.

"After your parents woke us up the other night, your father asked me if we were living together," Luke began.

Lorelai looked back at her father and said, "Dad, tell me you didn't."

"I did," he admitted. "But not in the way that you think. I wasn't trying to pry like your mother has a habit of doing. I was merely trying to find out more about your future plans since I had just learned of your engagement."

"Sounds like prying to me," Lorelai said in a teasing tone.

Richard looked at her sternly and said, "As your father, I have every right to make inquiries about your relationship and where it's headed, especially since it's just taken a very serious turn. You don't want to share things with your mother and I understand that. She has a tendency to be a bit of a snob when it comes to you and your relationships, but I don't look at things the same way she does. All I've ever wanted for you in a partner is someone who'll love you and make sure that you're provided for. That's something that you have with Luke."

"So, when you told Luke the other day that you approved, you really meant it?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

"So, um…does that mean….um…"she trailed off, not sure how to ask the question that was on her mind.

"Yes, Lorelai," Richard probed wondering where his daughter's sudden shyness had come from.

"Well, as we just told you, the wedding is June 25th and I…was wondering….um….would you….I mean, if you would mind…"She hung her head, still not sure how to get the words out.

"I'm listening," he said encouragingly. He had a feeling he knew what was on her mind but he wanted to hear it from her without putting the words in her mouth.

Lorelai took a deep breath and finally said in a rush, "Would you walk me down the aisle on our wedding day? If you don't want to, I'll understand. I know we haven't had the best father-daughter relationship in the world, but it's my wedding day, you know? I know I don't normally do things in the traditional way, but this is one tradition that I think is kind of nice and I'd really like it if you would, you know, do the traditional dad-thing and give me away. I mean, I'm only gonna get married just this once and I want my wedding day to be special and I think that a part of that would be having my father there to do the whole 'who-gives-this-woman' thing and do the father-daughter dance thing and all of that." When she'd finally finished she looked down at her plate not daring to look her father in the eye.

Richard reached across the table for his daughter's hand giving it a reassuring squeeze. When she looked up he said very simply, "I'd be honored."

"Really," she said with an elated smile on her face.

"Yes, Lorelai, really. It would give me great pleasure to walk you down the aisle to give your hand to the man sitting between us here," he said with a glance at Luke.

"I guess that's the only thing you can give him since he's already had everything else," Lorelai said with a mischievous grin at Luke.

"Jeez, here we go again," Luke said blushing furiously.

"Lorelai," her father said with a stern look.

"Come on, what's the big deal," she said. "We're already living together and I am pregnant, so it's not like it's not the truth."

"I have to say that I agree with Luke's statement the other night about keeping your private life private."

"Who's ready for dessert?" Luke said to change the subject as he picked up his empty plate and put it in the sink.

"Ooh, Me!" Lorelai said excitedly. "What'd you make for dessert?"

"I was so busy with the diner and the packing, I didn't have time to actually make anything, but I brought home a boysenberry pie from work. I know they're your favorite," he said.

"Yay," she said as she rose from the table to put her own dinner plate in the sink. She slid one arm around Luke's waist and said, "One of these days, you're gonna wake up and realize you're too good for me," she said affectionately and pressed a light kiss to his lips.

"Hey, not in front of your dad, ok?"he said still a little embarrassed by her earlier comment. "Why don't you finish clearing the table while I get the pie ready?"

"Ok," she grumbled as she turned back to the table and asked her dad, "Are you finished?"

"Yes, it was quite good. My compliments to the chef," he said to Luke who was busying himself with cutting the pie and getting ready to serve it while Lorelai put the leftovers from their dinner away.

"Thanks," Luke said as he returned to the table with three slices of pie, setting them around the table before resuming his seat.

"Luke is a man of _many _talents," Lorelai said with a smirk.

"Man," Luke said with a shake of his head.

"What? You are. The way you took over the kitchen at the inn and made it work without Sookie was nothing short of miraculous."

"Speaking of the inn, how's business," Richard asked trying to guide the conversation in a different direction, hoping it would lead where he wanted it to.

"Good, we've been pretty busy since the article came out."

"So, no vacancies?"He queried wondering if he'd have a place to stay for the night as he really was in no mood to face Emily yet.

"One or two," she said. While she hadn't actually made an appearance at the inn, she had called in to check on it. "Since this is Thursday, it's not quite as busy, but we've been packed on the weekends."

"I see," Richard said thoughtfully. "So, if someone wanted to rent a room for the night, say on the spur of the moment, there'd be one available?"

"Um, yeah, I think so. Why do you ask," Lorelai asked eyeing her father suspiciously, wondering where he was going with this.

"No reason, really," Richard said evasively not wanting Lorelai to know how serious his fight with her mother had been. He took a bite of his pie and said to Luke, "This pie is quite good, Luke. I have to admit, I've never had boysenberry pie before, but I can see why my daughter likes it."

Before Luke had a chance to comment, Lorelai jumped on her father saying, "Don't change the subject, Dad. What's with all the questions about the inn's occupancy? You've never been that interested in it before."

"I was simply inquiring about the state of your business, Lorelai. I know from what I saw yesterday that _Luke's _is doing quite well since the article in the _Times _and I wondered how the inn was doing. Just for the record, I have asked you about business at the inn many times."

"Yeah, but it's usually general questions like am I turning a profit and what do my projections look like? You've never asked about the specifics of my room occupancy. What's this all about, Dad? Are things that bad between you and Mom that you need a place to stay for the night?"

"I'd rather not talk about the trouble your mother and I are having," he said not wanting to upset her again as he knew that undue stress could potentially put his unborn grandchild at risk.

"Dad…"

"I said I don't want to talk about it," he snapped.

"Ok, but I'll tell you what, Dad. If you need a place to stay for the night, you don't have to go to the inn. You're more than welcome to stay here."

"Here?"

"Yes, Dad. Here," she confirmed. "There's a perfectly good bed in there," she said indicating Rory's room. "And it's not like Rory's using it," she added bitterly.

Richard couldn't help but notice the tinge of sadness in Lorelai's voice when she'd made her last statement. He wanted to apologize again for his part in the rift between mother and daughter, but instead said, "I don't want to intrude on the two of you when you're still getting adjusted to living together."

"So, you admit that you need a place to stay tonight?"

"Yes, all right, I need a place to stay tonight, but I'm not going to be an imposition on you and Luke."

"You wouldn't be," Luke said. "You've been nothing but supportive, so I'm with Lorelai on this one. You're welcome to stay here."

"So, what happened, Dad? Did Mom throw you out again?"

"No, she didn't, Lorelai. I left of my own accord, but as I said, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Ok," she said. "But the offer still stands. There's no reason you need to go to the inn. You spend enough time in hotels with all the traveling you do for work. If you're not going home tonight, you should at least stay with family."

"All right, Lorelai. You win. I'll stay."

"Good," she said.

They finished their dessert in silence, no one really wanting to talk about the underlying issue of how to deal with Emily and her numerous attempts to drive a wedge between Luke and Lorelai, which had accomplished nothing but creating tension between her and her husband as well as increasing the hostility that had always been there between her and Lorelai. While Luke and Lorelai straightened the kitchen, Richard had gone out to his car to retrieve the suitcase he'd impulsively grabbed after his fight with Emily and gone to Rory's room to unpack it. When the dinner dishes were done and the kitchen cleaned up Luke broke the silence by asking, "Do you wanna watch a movie or something, since we didn't get out night out?"

"Yeah, sure," Lorelai said. "What'd you have in mind?"

"I don't know. Maybe _Return of the Jedi_," he suggested with a grin.

"Hey, what did I say about _Star Wars_?"

"At least that one makes sense. The new one was completely stupid! I know it was supposed to lead up to how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, but seriously they couldn't have come up with a better explanation than that? It was totally lame and a complete waste of money to go see. I mean, Anakin was supposed to have all this natural talent as a Jedi, something that was pounded into the viewers' heads all through Episodes one and two, and all of a sudden he loses the final battle because the other guy has the high ground?"

"Well, Hon, you knew going into it that he had to lose. In the first three movies he's the bad guy."

"I know, but it still makes no sense. It's insulting to the viewers' intelligence! They might as well have done something as cliché as having his injuries come from crashing his jet pod or something."

Lorelai laughed at Luke's new rant about the movie and said, "You're such a geek."

"Spoken by the woman who has the entire series of _Cop Rock _on tape."

"Hey, do not mock the rock," she said.

"You've gotta admit it's got a lot of mocking potential," he fired back.

"So, do you two do this often? Debate, like this, I mean," Richard asked. It struck him as he watched them how right he was in his assertion to Emily that they hadn't spent enough time interacting with them as a couple.

"Yeah, it's kind of our thing," Lorelai answered before turning her attention back to Luke and saying, "I'll make you a deal. I'll watch your move with you tonight, if you'll watch the _Buffy _musical with me again tomorrow when we get back from Hartford."

"As long as you don't sing all the way through it," he challenged.

"But half the point of watching a musical is to sing along with the songs," she protested. "Besides, my singing voice is a lot better that Sarah Michelle Gellar's."

"You've got a point there," he said with a bemused smile. "All right, I concede. _Star Wars _tonight, _Buffy _tomorrow."

"Yay, I win!"

"Yeah, yeah," he said as he made his way to the living room. "Let's get the movie started." He walked to the shelf where the movies were stored and plucked his choice off of it.

"You gonna' join us, Dad?"she asked her father.

"I don't want to intrude," he protested. "You've obviously got your own thing going on here. Maybe I should just retire for the night."

"For the last time, Dad, you're _not _intruding. Come on and join us," she said as she followed her man into the living room where he'd already turned on the television and sat down on the end of the couch. Richard followed Lorelai as she settled herself next to Luke and leaned against him. Luke started to put his arm around her as was his normal habit when they were watching TV, but hesitated with Richard being present not wanting to make the wrong impression with his future father-in-law. "Hey, what's going on there, Cool Hand?" Lorelai asked.

"Oh…um…nothing," he said relaxing a little realizing that he was being stupid as he let his arm continue its path resting across Lorelai's shoulders. Richard had already said that he accepted them as a couple and wasn't freaked out by them living together.

"That's better," she said as she nestled into Luke's half-embrace.

There was a moment of awkwardness as Richard was unsure where he should sit. Regardless of what Lorelai had said, he still felt like he was interrupting their time together. He looked at the two of them cuddled up on the couch together and decided that even though there was room for him on sofa with them, he'd rather not encroach on their space. "I'll…um…just sit over here," he said a little nervously as he made his way to the armchair on the other side of the room.

"Ok," Lorelai said then turned to Luke. "Start the movie already. You've got the remote over there," she said indicating the end table beside him.

Luke did as he was told and the movie progressed in silence without another outburst from any of them like there had been at various times throughout their impromptu dinner together. Richard spent more time watching Lorelai's interaction with her future husband than actually watching the movie himself. He noticed how comfortable she seemed with Luke's arm around her and wondered if this was something they did often. He observed how Luke had taken her left hand in his right and was idly fiddling with the diamond ring he'd placed on it and was curious if this was something that he even realized he was doing. He knew from experience that after an extended period of time together couples developed habits in their interactions with each other that were entirely subconscious. About halfway through the movie, the silence was broken when Luke noticed that Lorelai appeared to have nodded off. "Hey," he said nudging her gently. "Let's get you to bed."

"There you go again, trying to get me into bed," she said in a sleepy voice.

Luke groaned at her comment and brushed it off by saying, "You're falling asleep. Come on, let's go." He urged to get up before standing up himself. "Do you want me to leave this on for you, so you can finish watching it?"he asked Richard.

"Um…no," Richard answered awkwardly. "I think I've seen all I need to see," he said in a tone that suggested he was talking about more than the movie. "I should be turning in myself. I still have to work in the morning." He rose from his chair and walked the direction of his granddaughter's room.

"Ok," Luke said as he turned off the television and made his way to the stairs with Lorelai. "Good night, then."

"'Night, Dad," Lorelai mumbled against Luke's shoulder as they headed up to their bedroom together. Richard turned back for a moment and watched as Luke supported Lorelai's weight all the way up the stairs. He reflected on this and the moment earlier when he consoled her when she was upset about her mother and thought about how great it was that Lorelai had a man in her life that she could lean on both literally and figuratively. He just wished he could convince his wife of that.

* * *

As soon as their bedroom door was closed, Lorelai was suddenly alert. She launched herself at Luke, kissing him fiercely. He responded at first, but then pulled back and gaped at her. "You were faking it," he said his eyes dancing in amusement.

"Yeah," she admitted. "I wanted to get you alone, but I didn't know how else to do it with my dad here." She closed the distance between them and started raining kisses on his neck while she tugged at the buttons on his flannel.

Luke sighed and lost himself for a moment in the feel of her lips against his neck before pulling back again, "So you faked being asleep."

"I wanted a little something that I knew I wouldn't have to fake," she said seductively as she resumed her attempt to get him undressed while nudging him the direction of their bed.

"Lorelai, wait," Luke said pushing her back gently, then was immediately sorry that he did when he saw the pained expression on her face.

"Don't you want me?"she questioned. "I thought since we just moved in together that we might…" She looked down at the floor not wanting him to see how hurt she was.

"It's not that I don't want you. I do. You have no idea how much, but your dad is right downstairs and I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of doing anything with him here."

"Do you honestly think he'll care? He already said that he's on board with us living together and getting married and he even agreed to give me away. Plus, he already knows the I'm pregnant, so it's not like he doesn't know that we're sleeping together."

"I know all that, Lorelai, but I want him to keep accepting us as a couple and I'm not sure that he would if he might, you know, overhear something that he shouldn't. I mean, let's face it, we both know that you're pretty…um…vocal," he said with a grin.

"Your fault," she said grinning back. "If you weren't so talented at making me crazy, I wouldn't get so loud." She moved back to get closer to him running her hands under his tee.

"You were already crazy," he quipped and groaned as Lorelai brushed her hand against the front of his jeans and reached for his zipper. When she slipped her hand inside and began to touch him, he knew he couldn't argue with her anymore. He pulled her to him and crushed her mouth with his own in a fiery kiss and let her propel him backwards onto their bed all thoughts of his future father-in-law being in the house pushed to the back of his mind as he let her have her way.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Sorry for the long delay in updates. Once again this chapter ended up being longer than I intended it to be, but what can you do when your muse calls you? That and I was a little distracted by the NFL playoffs as I'm a huge football fan. GO COLTS!!! WOO-HOO!!! (I'm from Indiana, in cae you can't tell by my enthusiasm.)

Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing and patiently waiting for an update. I greatly appreciate it.

:)

Lanie

* * *

Richard spent a fitful night trying to sleep in his granddaughter's room. He was not used to sleeping in a single bed and he wasn't exactly a small man. If he were truly honest with himself though, it wasn't the bed or its size that was keeping him from falling asleep. Other than during their painful separation the previous year, he'd been sleeping next to Emily for forty years. The harsh words they'd said to each other kept playing through his mind over and over again like a rerun of a bad television show. He hated saying the things he'd said to his wife, but they'd needed to be said. He wasn't going to let her meddling ways interfere with their daughter's happiness or prevent him from seeing his grandchild once he or she was born. He tossed and turned violently for most of the night. He'd gotten up once already to use the bathroom and splash his face with water hoping to clear his head, but it hadn't helped. At that moment, he thought of just going home to Hartford to try to hash things out with Emily, but he wasn't ready to face her yet. He was afraid that if he did, he'd just let his temper get the best of him again and things would be worse between them. No, it was better to wait until he'd cooled off before going home. He was still far too angry with her to risk another confrontation with her, especially now that he'd seen first-hand tonight just how happy Lorelai was with Luke and the fact that he'd heard just how far she'd gone to try to tear them apart. He was stunned by the fact that she'd actually thought trying to pay Luke off would work. He was very clearly not the kind of man who could be bought, not to mention the fact that it was quite plain that he was deeply in love with Lorelai and elated about his impending fatherhood.

As he'd left the bathroom he couldn't help but hear the soft moans and sighs coming from Lorelai's bedroom. He hurried down the stairs so he wouldn't have to hear anymore once he'd realized what she and Luke were doing. Perhaps she wasn't as tired as she seemed to be or maybe she'd simply faked it in order to spend some time alone with her future husband. He sighed as he thought that despite their protests to the contrary, he _had _been intruding. He couldn't fault his daughter for feigning sleep. It was only natural on the first night since they'd begun living together that they'd want some private time together. As he'd descended the stairs he heard his daughter calling out Luke's name. He quickly made his way back to Rory's room, closing the door behind him and laid down again even though he knew sleep wouldn't be coming anytime soon. His mind was too active. Aside from the argument with Emily, he kept replaying the evening he'd just spent with his daughter and future son-in-law in his head. He'd been immensely pleased that Lorelai had asked him to walk her down the aisle. He'd never thought in a million years that Lorelai would want him to play the traditional father role on her wedding day. He reflected on her hesitation in asking. He didn't quite understand it, but it seemed that she'd been afraid that he wouldn't want to do it. He recalled earlier in the year when he'd visited the Dragonfly to talk to Lorelai about her insurance policy when she'd been feuding with her mother after her break-up with Luke.

"_Oh, my! What is that heavenly smell?" he'd said when the waiter had brought their tray._

"_Scones," Lorelai had answered with a proud smile._

"_I have never smelled anything as heavenly as this"_

"_Wait 'til you taste them," she'd replied as they began serving themselves._

"_This is amazing," he'd gushed once he'd bitten into one of them. "Sookie is very talented in the kitchen." _

"_Yes, she is," Lorelai had agreed whole-heartedly._

_Richard had simply looked at his daughter for a moment. While she'd complimented Sookie's cooking with a smile, there was also a trace of sadness in her voice. He'd wondered at the time if she were thinking of Luke since he also made his living by cooking, but he'd been afraid to ask not wanting to start an argument like the one they'd had in their phone conversation over Rory's outburst at dinner. Instead he'd said, "I have to say that I'm impressed...with all of this. You've done a wonderful job here."_

"_You already said that, Dad, but thanks for the compliment again," she'd said. "I had a lot of help. I couldn't have done it without…" her voice had trailed off leaving her thought unfinished as a look of pain crossed her face._

"_Without what, Lorelai?" he'd pressed wanting to know what had caused the expression of sadness that had replaced her smile._

"_It doesn't matter, Dad," she said trying to shake off her melancholy._

"_If there's something bothering you, it does matter. I know that we've not had the best of relationships with each other, but if there's something that you'd like to talk about, I'd be happy to listen," he'd said encouragingly trying to do whatever he could to erase the pain from her eyes._

"_Talking about it doesn't help, Dad, but I appreciate the offer. This is just something that I have to work through on my own,"_

"_I see," he said. He sat there mulling over his daughter's sudden shift in mood trying to figure out how to cheer her up when they were interrupted by Rory storming in and abruptly depositing a paper bag on the table._

"_Mom, you have to talk to him," she said with a determined look on her face._

"_What? Who," Lorelai had inquired looking up at her daughter._

"_Luke! Who do you think I'm talking about? In that bag is the most disgusting cheeseburger I've ever tasted in my life," she'd said as she gestured at the bag she'd unceremoniously dropped on the table. It was then that Lorelai had actually looked at the bag and noticed the Luke's logo on it._

"_That's impossible! Luke makes the best cheeseburgers in the world!"_

"_Not anymore he doesn't," Rory had said as she flung herself into the chair across from Richard. "Go on! You should try it, then you'll know what I'm talking about."_

"_I don't need to try it. I know Luke's cheeseburgers and if it's that bad, it couldn't have been Luke's. Maybe Caesar made it."_

"_No. Lane said it was Luke's when she brought it to me at the bookstore and she said this has been going on for a while. He's burning food, throwing things around, tossing customers out, and generally being a complete grouch." Richard had been watching this exchange between mother and daughter in silence not wanting to interrupt because he was curious to see where Rory was going with this and if she'd be able to get Lorelai to open up about what was going on in her head._

"_Well, Luke's always been a little on the grouchy side," his daughter had said as if trying to laugh it off._

"_Not like this, Mom. No matter what kind of bad mood he's been in, he's always cared about the diner. It's been his pride and joy as long as we've known him and now it's like he could care less about it. You have to talk to him," she repeated emphatically._

"_No, I don't have to talk to him," Lorelai stated. "That's the thing about a break-up. You don't have to talk to your ex."_

"_But, Mom, he's only doing this stuff because he's miserable without you. Maybe if you talked to him, you could work it out."_

"_I tried that, Rory. I was miserable without him too, and when I tried to talk to him about it he blew me off. If he's so miserable without me, then maybe he should have thought about that before he dumped me. He's the one who said it was too much."_

"_I know that, Mom, but he was angry at the time. He's loved you for so long and all of this has really hurt him."_

"_Do you think it hasn't hurt me too? I lost not only my boyfriend, but my best friend too. I get now why you told me four years ago that I couldn't date him because it would mess everything up. You were right. I should have listened to you. Now, my best friend in the world is out of my life and wants nothing to do with me."_

"_I didn't want to be right," Rory had said sadly."Are you sure there's no way that you guys could work it out? You know that he really loves you."_

"_I'm sure. He's made his choice. If he really loved me, he would have given me a chance to explain things to him and try to work it out, but he didn't. He said point blank 'I can't be in this relationship.' That's not something a guy who loves you does."_

"_Mom can't you just…"_

"_No, I can't just…," Lorelai had said before her daughter could finish her sentence. "Luke and I are over, done. I wish we weren't, but I can't do anything to change it. I'm giving him his space just like he wanted me to and I'm not going to go running over there and be humiliated again by throwing myself at a man who doesn't want me."_

"_But he does want you. He always has," Rory had pleaded with her mother._

"_He's got a damn funny way of showing it."_

_Richard had sat in silence while Rory, much like she had the previous Friday night, bolted from her seat angrily. She glared at her mother and said, "Fine! You want to be miserable, go right ahead and be miserable, but I'm not going to sit around and watch it. I have to get back to the bookstore anyway." She'd then snatched the Luke's bag off the table and stormed out in a huff._

_After Rory had made her exit, he'd sat there not quite knowing what to say. Lorelai had said during their phone conversation that she and Rory were both extremely hurt and upset over Lorelai's broken relationship, but this was worse than he'd imagined. He'd had a feeling that his daughter's sadness was brought on by her feelings about her break-up, but she'd refused to talk about it until Rory has forced it out of her. "Do you want to talk about it?"_

"_I've had enough of talking about it," she said brushing away the tears that had filled her eyes. _

"_Lorelai, for what it's worth, I am truly sorry."_

"_Yeah, me too," she said sadly._

"_Was this why talking about the inn had upset you?"_

"_Yeah," she admitted looking down at her plate. "Gran wasn't wrong about me needing more money to open this place." She looked up at him again and continued. "I was too proud to confess to you and Mom that I was broke. I didn't want you to think that I was a failure. So, when I needed money, I went to Luke instead. He's the one who loaned me the rest of the money I needed, but not only that. He was here during the renovation and encouraged me. He really supported me through all of this when I doubted myself and made me realize that I could do this. He was just always there," she finished. "And now he's not."_

Richard shifted uncomfortably in the small bed as he thought of that day. She'd gone on to tell him that Luke had kissed her for the very first time on the front porch of the inn. It was in that moment as he'd sat quietly listening to his daughter talk about Luke that he realized for the first time in her life, Lorelai was truly in love. He'd found out a little over a week later that she and Luke _had _worked things out due to Emily paying an unscheduled visit to Luke at the diner. He'd hoped that Emily's effort to reunite them would have helped to repair the damage done to her relationship with Lorelai, but that hadn't been the case. Though things had been mended between Luke and Lorelai, the rift between mother and daughter hadn't. Lorelai still stubbornly refused to come to dinner or have anything to do with her mother for more than a month after that. It wasn't until she'd heard that Logan was invited to dinner that she'd made another appearance in their home. He thought back to that dinner just three weeks ago when Lorelai had told them her concerns about Rory's relationship with the Huntzberger heir while his wife had taken yet another swipe at Lorelai's relationship with Luke. He vividly recalled Emily's surly 'I never thought of _you _as a prude,' directed at their daughter. It hadn't hit him in that moment, but it struck him now that Emily had been clearly voicing her displeasure at Lorelai's sexual activity. He sighed as he began thinking how it might have hurt Lorelai that Emily, in her own subtle way, had insinuated in that one comment that she thought her daughter was a tramp. He didn't think of it that way. While he knew that Lorelai had had more lovers than he was comfortable with thinking about, he also knew that she wasn't the type to just randomly sleep around. He thought about the man who was upstairs making love with his daughter and his assertion in their conversation the other day that while they obviously had an active sex life, their relationship was far from being just a physical one. Luke had made it very plain that he loved Lorelai and not just for her body. Richard had not one doubt that Luke was fully committed to providing a stable home life for his family. His purchase of the larger house and his exuberance about making the necessary repairs to it to make it suitable for his future wife and child to live in had proven that. He thought again of his own wife and her attack on said house. He couldn't understand how she could fail to see what was right in front of her eyes. He was angered by that fact that her snobbery preventing her from acknowledging that Luke was unwavering in his determination to spend his life with Lorelai, despite her objections and that her actions, far from having the desired effect of ending their relationship, had in fact done just the opposite. It had only strengthened the younger couple's resolve in pursuing their dreams for the future. Richard felt like a failure. Despite his efforts, he'd been unable to convince Emily to abandon her insane behavior and make her realize that her actions were only hurting their daughter and were bound to drive an even bigger wedge between them if she didn't desist.

For the second time since lying down he flung himself from his granddaughter's bed. He walked into the kitchen, reached for a drinking glass from the drainer by the sink and filled it with water taking a long drink from it while seating himself at the table. He let out another deep sigh. He knew he wasn't going to be able to go to sleep until he could quiet all the thoughts rolling around in his overly busy head. He couldn't keep his mind off of the situation. He didn't really know what to do. On the one hand he was supportive of his daughter's new plans for her life but his support had caused a dispute in his marriage. On the other hand had he not shown his support to his daughter and her future husband, he would have risked being cut out of his daughter's life like he was sure Emily was about to be if she didn't end her crusade. He didn't want that. He wanted to be a real part of his daughter's life and have the opportunity to know his new grandchild. He reflected on the tension that had arisen between him and Lorelai at the beginning of the evening and her wariness in trusting him. She'd acted as if she thought that he shared her mother's censure of her relationship and had come here to carry on Emily's mission. He didn't want that. He wanted Lorelai to know that he supported her fully. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a voice coming from the stairs.

"Come on, you stupid mutt. Let's go," Luke was grumbling as he descended the stairs followed by a shaggy dog, Lorelai not far behind them.

"Hey, Paul Anka is _not _stupid," Lorelai protested while Luke walked to the back door and opened it to let Paul Anka out while she headed for the refrigerator.

"Coulda fooled me," Luke groused as he looked at the dog who'd just stepped out onto the back porch and let out a whimper. "What," he said to the dog. "Why are you just standing there? Go do your business already!"

Lorelai chuckled and said, "He's afraid of the stairs. You're gonna have to carry him."

Luke looked at her incredulously. "You've gotta be kidding me,"

"Nope," she said as she poured herself a glass of milk and reached for the remainder of the boysenberry pie. "He got all freaked out by the front stairs when I brought him home."

"He didn't seem to have a problem barreling up the inside stairs when the doorbell rang earlier," he said indicating the stairs they'd just come down.

"I don't know why but he only seems to be afraid of outside stairs," Lorelai explained as she reached into a drawer for a fork and sat down at the table opposite her father.

Luke sighed with a shake of his head, stepped out onto the back porch, picked Paul Anka up and said to him, "You are a freak!"

Lorelai laughed again, then said to her dad, "What are you still doing up, Dad?"

"I'm having a little bit of trouble sleeping. You know how it is, sleeping in a strange bed," he answered not wanting to share with her the real reason for his lack of sleep.

"Well, I've got the perfect cure for that," she said indicating the pie plate in front of her as Luke stepped back into the room. "When I'm having trouble sleeping, a good healthy serving of Luke's pie always helps me nod right off. I'll share, if you want," she continued as she pushed the pie plate closer to the middle of the table.

"Thank you. I think I'll take you up on that. It was rather good pie," Richard said as he reached into the drainer on the counter behind him for a fork.

"You're eating again," Luke said to his fiancée.

"I _am _pregnant, Hon. I do need to eat."

"And you're eating out of the pie plate," he said with a groan.

"And I will clean it up when I'm done."

"Fine, do whatever you want. Your insane dog is taken care of, you've got your pie, now I'm going back to bed."

"We can't just leave Paul Anka out there all night," Lorelai protested. "Babette's cats will kill him."

"You want your dog back in the house, you go get him. I have to be up earlier than you do," he said and started to head for the stairs.

"Not so fast, Mister," she said.

Luke turned back around and said, "What?" Lorelai answered by leaning her head back and puckering her lips. He bent down and kissed her softly. "Just don't stay up too late, ok? You need your rest."

Lorelai watched Luke with a smile until he was out of sight before turning back to her father and saying, "Do you want me to get you a plate, Dad?"

"No, this is fine," he said with a gesture at the pie plate between them. "Though your mother would kill me if she knew that I was eating directly out of a serving dish," he added with a slight smile at the thought of Emily's reaction to this while he helped himself to a bit of the pie. He normally would turn up his nose at doing this, but it felt good to do something that he knew his wife wouldn't approve of. "I must say this is quite good. It's simple, but I have to admit that I get a little tired of all the syrupy sweet desserts your mother prepares." Lorelai's smile faded a little at the mention of her mother. Upon seeing this, Richard said, "I'm sorry, Lorelai."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Dad. You're not the one who's been running around Stars Hollow like a maniac doing anything and everything to try to make sure that I'm as miserable as possible."

"I don't think it's your mother's intention to make you miserable, Lorelai. She's simply trying to look out for your best interests, even if she is going about it the wrong way," he said not really agreeing with it but trying to do anything he could to wipe that pained expression off of his daughter's face. He wished he knew how to mend the rift between mother and daughter once and for all. He wished he could get Emily to look at things objectively and see that their daughter was in love and happy in her relationship.

"Don't you dare defend her to me! You don't know half of what she's been up to! She stood right there in my living room this morning and called me a whore!"

"She didn't?"Richard asked incredulously. He found it hard to believe that Emily would say that to her own daughter. "I know that she has trouble accepting that you're not exactly innocent, but I can't imagine her calling her only daughter a whore."

"Ok, maybe the word 'whore' didn't actually come out of her mouth, but it was implied when she asked me if I was absolutely sure that Luke is this baby's father. What does that say about what she thinks of me? How could she think that I could be in a serious relationship and not know who the father of my kid is? I mean, I know I have a past, but that's all over with. Luke is it for me. He is _the _one."

"I can see that," Richard said with a smile at his daughter's conviction to stick to her guns when it came to Luke. "It's quite obvious that you love him very much."

"I really, really do, Dad. Why is it that you can see it, but Mom can't?"

"I honestly don't know, Lorelai. As I said at dinner, your mother and I aren't seeing eye to eye on this."

"I hate this," Lorelai said as she stabbed at the pie with her fork. "I hate that you and Mom are fighting over me. I don't want to be the cause of another separation between you two, not when you just got back together three months ago."

"Let me tell you something, Lorelai, and I want you to really listen to me. You are _not _the cause of another separation between me and your mother. We aren't separating again. We're just having a disagreement, one that we will work out ourselves."

"How can you say that, Dad? You're spending the night here and Mom stayed at the inn last night. Isn't that how this whole thing started before, with Mom staying in hotels instead of at the house? This is all my fault," Lorelai said sadly.

"It's not," Richard said. "The blame is entirely mine."

"How do you figure?"

"I knew your mother was up to something the night that you told us of your engagement to Luke and I didn't do enough to stop it. I thought it was enough to come here and let Luke know about it, so the two of you would be prepared, but I was wrong. I should have stood up to your mother and put a stop to it before she did all the things she's done."

"I doubt even you would have been able to stop her," Lorelai said. "When Emily Gilmore's determined to do something, she does it no matter what anyone else says."

"That sounds a little like Lorelai Gilmore as well," he said with a smile. "I notice that your mother's interference hasn't changed your mind one bit about marrying Luke."

"No, it hasn't and neither will whatever other half-baked scheme she comes up with next. I can't wait to marry Luke."

"Well, I can't wait until that day when I get to walk you down the aisle and watch you marry him," he said as he rose from his seat, crossed to the other side of the table and laid a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I was deeply touched that you asked."

Lorelai also rose from her chair and wrapped her arms around her father and said, "Thank you, Dad."

Richard returned his daughter's embrace for a moment before pulling back a little taking her hands in his, looking down at the sparking diamond on her hand and saying, "This is quite the lovely ring Luke bought for you."

"Isn't it? He has good taste," she said with a smile as she looked at her engagement ring.

"He proved that when he chose you to be his bride," Richard said with a smile. "I'm very happy for you, Lorelai."

"I love you, Daddy," she said with a smile as she hugged him again happy that he seemed to be sincere in his support of her upcoming marriage to the man who'd made her so happy.

"I love you, too," he said as he planted a kiss on the top her head and simply held her. It was not something that he normally did, but it felt right in the moment. He closed his eyes and just reveled in the knowledge that while she'd been hurt by her mother's actions, it hadn't affected her feelings toward him. He'd figure out how to deal with Emily when he got home. For now, he just wanted to make sure that his daughter knew that she had the support of at least one of her parents.

Lorelai pulled back from him and said, "I'd better go check on Paul Anka."

"I should be getting back to bed, anyway," he said. "I think you're right, Lorelai. The pie was just the thing I needed," he added though he knew it wasn't the pie that had done it. While Lorelai stepped out the back door to retrieve her dog, he put the empty pie plate in the sink and returned to his granddaughter's room and lay back down confident that he'd be able to sleep now.

* * *

Emily sat in a private detective's office Friday morning unable to believe what she was hearing. "Are you sure there's nothing more?"

"No, nothing. I'm sorry, Mrs. Gilmore, but other than the arrest that you already knew about, which by the way is a matter of public record, I couldn't find anything incriminating on this guy. Even his divorce decree doesn't tell us a whole lot. The reason behind it is simply listed as irreconcilable differences, there's not even anything about the adultery you mentioned when we spoke on the phone yesterday."

"Damn," she said. She'd been hoping when she'd contacted the investigator the day before while she'd been nosing around Stars Hollow that he'd be able to uncover more about Luke's obvious propensity for violence that she'd heard about from his neighbors. "I was sure there was something that he was hiding."

"See for yourself," he said handing her the file he'd compiled on Luke for her while reading though his own copy of it. "Lucas William Danes, born November 10th, 1965 to William and Katherine Danes of Stars Hollow Connecticut. One sister, Elizabeth Marie Danes, born December 12th, 1966. His mother died May 4th, 1976 when he was only ten. His father was diagnosed with cancer in 1985 when the guy was still in college at the University of Hartford where he was on a baseball scholarship. He commuted to school from Stars Hollow on a daily basis while working in his father's hardware store. He left school after his father's illness started to take its toll. He cared for his father and ran the store until his death November 30th, 1986. After that Mr. Danes shut down his father's hardware store, sold his parents' house and converted his father's old office into an apartment that he's been living in ever since. He opened his diner in the same building in 1990 which has done a pretty decent business in the fifteen years it's been open. He was legal guardian to his nephew Jess Mariano for two years and in that time he bought the empty building next door to his diner in order to make the apartment above it big enough for both of them to live in."

"Did he take out a loan to do that?"Emily asked wondering if he was in debt.

"Not according to his bank. He simply withdrew the money from his personal account by way of cashier's check to pay for the building. He now leases the commercial part of the building to a Mr. Taylor Doose for a place called Taylor's Old Fashioned Soda Shoppe and Candy Store, which I found out was how he met his now ex-wife. She was Mr. Doose's lawyer who oversaw that deal."

"What do you know about her?"Emily inquired.

He thumbed through the pages and read, "Nicole Diana Leahy, born August 20th, 1967, graduated top of her class from Harvard Law School, now works for the firm Blodgett, Sage, Albert, Pettruccio, Stein, Lemming, and Stein, married to Mr. Danes on May 30th, 2003, filed for divorce on September 20th, 2003, put the divorce proceedings on hold on November 4th, 2003. She and Mr. Danes then shared a townhouse in Litchfield for a brief time before finalizing their divorce on April 27th, 2004 at Mr. Danes' request shortly after his arrest."

"So, he was married for less than a year," Emily mused. "What else?"

"Like I said, there's not much that I was able to find that you don't already know about. I managed to talk to one of his regular customers, a Kirk Gleason, who told me that his relationship with your daughter seems to have started shortly after the divorce. He said that your daughter had been his date for his sister's wedding on May 8th, 2004, where Mr. Gleason had been working as a DJ, and that he'd seen them kissing the following weekend when she did her test run for her inn. Let's see, what else," He said as he rifled through more of his notes. "He's bailed his sister out a number of times when she's needed it, including shortly after his divorce and her wedding when he spent some time in Maine helping her run her renaissance faire booth after she and her husband were injured in a car accident. He spent seven weeks there before returning to Stars Hollow where he resumed his relationship with your daughter."

Emily let the man drone on but had stopped really listening to what he was saying once he'd told her that Lorelai had started seeing Luke so soon after his divorce. She recalled Miss Patty telling her yesterday that Luke's ex-wife had accused him of cheating on her with Lorelai but she hadn't believed it at the time. Now she wondered if the accusations had been true, in spite of the dance teacher's assertion that Luke wasn't the type to stray. Maybe his wife had cheated in retaliation for his own philandering. She didn't want to think that her daughter was the type who would knowingly have an affair with a married man, but who knew with her? She'd certainly made it clear that she wasn't the least bit ashamed of her overly active sex life. While she didn't want to think that way about her only daughter, it was starting to make sense, especially if what the he was saying was true and Lorelai had been seen kissing Luke barely two weeks after his divorce had been finalized. Maybe his wife had caught them together and that's what started her on the path to cheating herself. After all, why would she have accused him of cheating if she didn't have some form of evidence to back it up?

She thought back to the weekend of the test run and realized that she'd been so focused on her anger at Lorelai for forcing her into spending time with Richard while they were separated, that she hadn't noticed what else had gone on. She tried to recall if there'd been some evidence of something going on between her and Luke that weekend. She seemed to remember passing Luke on the front steps of the inn while she and Richard were being ushered outside to that horrible shack Lorelai had booked them in. As she thought about it, she recalled that he'd walked into the inn with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. She also remembered Jason being there later that day. She tried to visually recreate that night in her mind. Now, that she thought of it, she seemed to recall Luke glaring at Jason from the dining room and hanging on every word that was being said. She remembered Lorelai telling her that Jason had just shown up uninvited, but she hadn't believed her at the time. Now, she saw all too clearly what had caused Lorelai's attitude that night. She'd had something going on with Luke and Jason had shown up unexpectedly and tried to wreck it just like she had wrecked Luke's marriage. Clearly she'd been angry because she wanted Luke and had just managed to get rid of his wife and make her move when Jason came around again. She'd known for several years that there was an obvious sexual attraction between her daughter and Luke, but it repulsed her to think that her daughter had stooped as low as breaking up the man's marriage to get what she wanted and now she was carrying that despicable man's child. "I think that's all the information I need," Emily said to investigator who was still yammering. "I think I know now what I need to do next."

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you, but there's really just no dirt there to dig up on your daughter's fiancé. Other than the one arrest for a minor charge, he seems to be a pretty decent guy. Granted, I've only been investigating for a day. I could do some more digging if you like, but from what I've seen so far, I really doubt I'll find anything else."

"That won't be necessary. Thank you for your time," Emily said as she picked up the file and prepared to leave. She glanced briefly at the man before making her exit and thought that while he didn't think he'd given her any dirt on Luke, she believed otherwise. Now, she just had to make use of it.

* * *

Lorelai walked into her kitchen and went straight for the coffee pot knowing that Luke usually made sure there was fresh coffee made for her when he left for work. She wasted no time in pouring herself a cup, but nearly spit it out after she took a drink of it. "That rat bastard!" she cried and she began tearing through cabinets and searching the kitchen frantically.

"Lorelai, what on earth is going on," her father inquired as he emerged from Rory's room already dressed for the day. "Who's a rat bastard?"

"Luke! Here I was thinking how sweet it was that he made sure I had a pot of coffee already made when I got up and it turns out, not so sweet! It's decaf," she grumbled. "Not only that, but I can't find the real stuff I had here! It's bad enough that he won't let me have the good stuff at the diner, but now he's taking it away from me at home. I'm gonna kill him!"

Richard chuckled as he watched his daughter continue to root through the kitchen and said, "Well, don't be too hard on him. He's only looking out for your safety. You really shouldn't be drinking a lot of coffee while you're pregnant."

"You're on his side now?"

"I'm merely saying that it seems to me that he wants to be sure that his child comes into this world healthy. I happen to think that's a good thing," he said as he poured himself a cup of coffee not caring like his daughter did that it was decaf. "Maybe you should talk to your doctor about your caffeine intake before you decide to kill him. "

"Well, I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I'll just ask him what he thinks, but I can't imagine him having any problem with it. I was perfectly fine drinking coffee when I was pregnant with Rory." She took another sip of her coffee and frowned. She knew that Luke wasn't going to back down on the coffee issue unless he heard from the doctor that it was safe. She recalled their conversation the night she'd related her dream about the twins to him and he'd said that a pregnant woman shouldn't be drinking coffee and that that was probably why Rory was a caffeine addict. She felt a momentary pang of sadness thinking of Rory. She knew that she'd see her tonight, but she was incredibly nervous about how that interaction was going to go. She didn't want to fight with her again.

"Yes, but you were twenty years younger then," Richard pointed out. Richard had not failed to notice the flicker of pain on his daughter's face at the mention of her daughter. "Speaking of Rory, there's something I should tell you, but I don't know quite how. I fear that it will only upset you again, but I feel it's something you need to know in order to be prepared for it at dinner tonight."

"Just spit it out, Dad. Whatever it is, I can take it. What's Mom done now?"

"I'm afraid that she spilled the beans about your engagement and your pregnancy. It was quite obvious from Rory's reaction to the news that you hadn't told her yet."

"Great," Lorelai said with a sigh. That explained Rory's hostility in her phone message, if she'd thought that they'd purposely kept the news from her.

"I'm sorry, Lorelai. Your mother came home very angry that night apparently upset with some confrontation she'd had with Luke. I know now that it was over her trying to pay him off. I just wish I'd known sooner what your mother was up to, then this wouldn't have happened.

"Again, Dad, not your fault. Mom is going to do what she's going to do no matter what you say. I just feel bad that you're stuck in the middle of all of this. You've been nothing but supportive, but she stubbornly refuses to see that Luke makes me happy."

"By the way, where is Luke?"Richard asked in an effort to change the subject not wanting to stir up more hostility toward his wife.

"Oh, he's long gone. He'd have gone to open the diner more than two hours ago. He opens at 6 and he's usually there by 5:15 at the very latest. I was going to stop in there for breakfast on my way to the inn. On the days he opens, I usually eat breakfast there. You're welcome to join me if you want before you head off to work. Luke makes really good pancakes, something I could use right now the way this kid of his had been making me sick."

"I'd love to join you for breakfast if you're sure I wouldn't be intruding on your morning routine."

"Dad, I wouldn't have invited you if I thought you were intruding, Come on," she said as she headed out the front door and began the walk to the diner.

"All right, I'm in," he said trailing behind her though he glanced at her warily as if still unsure that he was welcome.

"Dad, where is this coming from? You kept saying last night that you were intruding and we kept telling you that you weren't."

"But that wasn't true, Lorelai. I interfered with your evening plans with Luke. I'm not stupid, Lorelai. I figured out that you pretended to be asleep to get away from me."

"What are you talking about, Dad?"

"When I couldn't sleep, I went to the bathroom and I couldn't help but hear a little of your…um….activities."

"Oh," she said a little uneasily.

"I swear I wasn't trying to listen and I walked away as soon as I realized what was going on, but it still made me realize that I was a horrible intrusion on your private life last night. You should have just said something rather than feigning sleep."

"How would you have reacted if I'd just said, 'hey, Dad, it's great having you here, but I wanna take my man upstairs and undress him'? How would that have sounded?"

"It would have sounded honest, at least," her father replied.

"Dad, I meant what I said when I told you that you weren't intruding. I really did enjoy having you at the house last night, but I wanted a little alone time with my fiancée too, especially since we just moved in together. I don't feel that I should have to apologize for that," Lorelai said defensively.

"I'm not saying that you should apologize for it, Lorelai."

"Then what are you saying? I know you said you're not happy that I'm pregnant and unmarried, but you have to accept it and the fact that I'm not going to stop having sex with Luke just because you don't like it."

"I never said a thing about that part of things. Obviously I know that you and Luke are having sex. You wouldn't be pregnant otherwise. Let me clarify things for you a little here. I _am _happy that I'm going to be a grandfather again whether you're married or not. All I'm saying is that if you wanted to go to bed, you should have just said something rather than resorting to deception. I think you're letting your mother's disapproval get to you and you're confusing her feelings with mine. I have told both you and Luke repeatedly that I'm on board with your upcoming marriage. I have no problem with the idea that you're sharing a home now and I accept that you and Luke have an intimate relationship. I don't know what else I can do to convince you that I fully support you and your decision to marry the man you love. I told you how happy I was for you and how pleased I was that you asked me to give you away. What else can I possibly do?"

Lorelai glanced at her father and saw the pain etched on his face. "I'm sorry, Dad. You're right. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or make you feel unwelcome. I'm not used to this fatherly approval thing. It's just with Mom constantly interfering and running down both me and Luke, I'm a little on edge."

"As am I, Lorelai. You have no idea how hard this has been on me. I feel as if the rift between you and Rory is my fault. On top of that, your mother and I are arguing over her meddling in your life but I'm really trying to be there for you as a father should, something that I should have done a long time ago. Maybe if I had, you wouldn't have such a hard time trusting me now."

"I appreciate that, Dad. I really do," she said as she pushed open the door to the diner. "Man, this place is crazy busy again." She spotted only one empty table near the window at the end of the counter and made a beeline for it while her father followed her. "That review in the _Times_ has really increased Luke's business," she explained to her father.

"So it would seem. It was busy like this when I visited Luke the other day," he picked up a menu and began to peruse it. "So, aside from the pancakes, what's good to eat here?"

"I usually just get the pancakes. The French toast is good though."

Lane walked over to them coffee pot in hand and said, "Coffee, Mr. Gilmore?"

"Yes, thank you, "he replied politely. Lane picked up the cup in front of him and filled and was about to do the same with Lorelai's when she was stopped by a gruff voice behind her.

"Hey, hey, hey," Luke said as he came running up with the decaf pot. "Lane, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Pouring Lorelai's morning coffee like I always do," Lane answered bewildered by her boss' attitude.

"Well, stop it," he said indicating the decaf pot in his hands.

Lane looked at him warily. "You wanna risk your life with that one, go right ahead, I'm not taking that chance," She quipped as she ran off to fill more coffee cups.

Luke picked up Lorelai's coffee cup and filled it with decaf before smiling at her and saying, "Good morning," before leaning in for his morning kiss.

"Back off, Buddy," Lorelai said pushing him away slightly. "I'm mad at you."

"For what?" he said in irritation.

"Um….Hello?" she said gesturing to the coffee cup in front of her. "That and all the real stuff I had at home seems to have mysteriously disappeared. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"I haven't got a clue," he said with a grin. "I made sure you had coffee before I left the house this morning, didn't I?"

"That was _not_ coffee," she protested. "_That_ was a sick joke. Now, where did you hide the real stuff?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I made your morning coffee with what was in the house."

"Come on, 'fess up. I tore the whole kitchen apart looking for the real stuff," she pleaded.

"Didn't find it, did ya," he said with a smirk.

"That's just plain mean, Luke! Depriving me of my morning jolt is nothing short of mental cruelty," she said with a pout.

"Sue me," he said. "I've got some customers to take care of so let me know when you're ready to order."

Luke walked to the counter and replaced the coffee pot on its burner while Lorelai jumped out of her seat and said, "Not so fast, Burger Boy."

"What?" he said gruffly as he turned to face her. Lorelai reached her hand up to the back of his neck and pulled him in for kiss, his hand instinctively going to her waist as they kissed. When he pulled back from her he said with a smile, "I thought you were mad at me."

"That doesn't mean you're not still a good kisser," she said as she pressed her lips to his again.

"Get a room," Gypsy said from her seat at the counter at seeing the public display of affection causing laughter to erupt amongst the townies in the diner.

"Knock it off, Gypsy," Luke said gruffly.

"So, are you seriously going to make me go without coffee for nine months?"Lorelai said with a slight whine in her tone.

"I just want to make sure that our baby is born healthy," he said softly as he shifted his hand to her stomach.

"I get that, but don't you think a happy mommy makes for a happy baby," she suggested.

"Why don't we wait to see what the doctor says this afternoon, ok?"

"So, I can have real coffee until then?"She asked hopefully.

"No," he said firmly. "Not until I here from the doctor that it's safe."

"It was worth a shot," she said as she sat back down with her father. Richard had watched this interaction with some interest. He noticed that while Luke appeared gruff on the outside, he had a tender side that seemed to be reserved just for Lorelai.

"So, do you know what you want yet?" Luke asked them as he picked up an order pad from the counter.

"Banana pancakes, with a side of bacon," Lorelai said.

"Banana," Luke questioned. "Not your usual chocolate chip?"

"No, I want banana, or actually Baby Danes here wants banana. I swear this kid loves fruit just like Daddy."

"It's nice to know that my kid can accomplish what I've been trying to do for years, get you to eat healthier," Luke said with a smug smile.

"Don't get cocky. I won't be pregnant forever," she said. "As soon as this kid comes out it's back to all the junk food I love."

"Imagine that," Luke said dryly.

Richard chuckled a little at the banter between Luke and his daughter. He was just beginning to see that this was a part of their relationship. He put down his menu and said, "I think I'd like to try that special omelet that the _Times _critic was so highly complimenting."

"You got it," Luke said as he wrote down their order and headed to the kitchen to hand it off to Caesar before continuing with his work day, taking orders, refilling coffee cups, clearing tables and running food out to hungry patrons.

Richard watched Luke and the ease with which he moved through the diner, jumping from task to task fluidly. "He's quite the hard worker, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is," Lorelai said with a proud smile on her face as she watched her man.

"Lorelai, you're staring," her father said.

"So? I like looking at my man hard at work, especially when he's bent over a table to clear it and I've got a good view of his butt," she said with a grin.

"Lorelai!"

"What, Dad? He's a really good-looking man. If these women sitting here knew what an amazing body he hides under all that flannel, I'd have to fight to keep him."

"I highly doubt that, Lorelai. He's made it clear that he only has eyes for you. As for what he's hiding under the flannel, I think I saw more than enough a few nights ago when your mother insisted on making a middle of the night trip to Stars Hollow," he quipped.

"See what happens when you walk into your daughter's room without knocking," she teased her father.

"Believe me when I say that I'm sorry we did. I had no idea when we walked in there that'd we be interrupting a private moment between you and Luke. It's not as if we expected Luke to be there. After all, his truck wasn't in the driveway."

"First of all, as we both told you that night you weren't interrupting anything but a sound sleep, that's all. That's why we were so startled when you guys burst into the room like you did. Second, Luke's truck wasn't there because he walked from the diner, something he does a lot."

"I see," Richard said pondering all the things he was learning about the ins and outs of his daughter's relationship. "So, tell me about your wedding plans," he said in an effort to shift the conversation in a different direction.

"We haven't gotten a whole lot done yet other than setting the date and picking the location, which is going to be at the inn, by the way."

"That seems appropriate for you and Luke with all you've told me of his connection to the Dragonfly."

"That's what we thought. The inn is sort of where our relationship first started so I think it's a nice idea to have our wedding there. Sookie and I are going to go dress shopping this weekend and start making more plans. We've got a lot of work to do before the big day, but I think we can manage it."

"I have no doubt," Richard said as Luke arrived back at the table with their food.

"Here you go. Special omelet," Luke said handing a plate to Richard. "And banana pancakes," he said with a smile as he handed another plate to Lorelai.

"Thanks, Babe," she said with a smile as she reached up for another quick kiss. "By the way, I didn't hear you leave this morning."

"I was trying to be quiet so I wouldn't wake you."

"Yeah, but I didn't even hear your alarm go off like I usually do."

"That's because your psychotic dog woke me up before my alarm went off by jumping on me begging to go out."

"How did I miss that?"

"You were sound asleep. That's how. So, I turned the alarm off, took Paul Anka out, and then got dressed for work as quietly as I could."

"You could've woken me up to say good-bye. I wouldn't have minded."

"You were sleeping so peacefully I didn't want to disturb you. Besides, you need your rest, especially with all the stress you've been under lately," he said as he lightly stroked her hair. "We have got to do something to keep that rotten little beast out of our bed."

"Hey, Paul Anka is _not _rotten. He's just still getting used to us. Since he was a rescue, he needs all the love and attention he can get. Just think of it as good practicefor when this kid's old enough to climb in bed with us in the middle of the night."

"Whatever," Luke said as he returned to work.

"I remember those days well," Richard said with a fond smile at his daughter.

"What are you talking about, Dad," Lorelai said. "I never climbed in bed with you and Mom in the middle of the night."

"Yes, you did, Lorelai. Many times, especially when you were little and had all those ear infections."

"Somehow, I don't imagine Mom being too thrilled with that," she said. "That'd be just one more imperfect thing about me that she'd hate."

"Contrary to what you may think about your mother, Lorelai, she really does love you."

"She's got a damn funny way of showing it," Lorelai said bitterly echoing the words Richard recalled her saying about Luke after their break-up that day he'd spent with her at the inn. He remembered that day also coming home to argue with Emily over the situation. His wife had been livid that Lorelai had talked to him, but was still shutting her out. She'd been a little childish about it actually calling him the favorite when the truth was that Lorelai had allowed him to remain a part of her life because he wasn't the one who had been responsible for her heartbreak. "If she loves me why can't she be happy for me?"

Richard's reply was cut off by a very upset Sookie storming into the diner with a newspaper clipping in hand shouting, "Where is he?"

"Who?"Lorelai asked.

"Luke! Who do you think?" She spotted Luke clearing a table by the window that looked into the soda shop. She marched over to him and waved the clipping in his face. "How could you do this to me!" she shouted angrily.

"Sookie, what the hell are you talking about?"Luke questioned.

"_This_," she screeched as she furiously waved the clipping around. "This is what I'm talking about! I trusted you in my kitchen, with my staff, and this is how you repay me! This should have been _my _review!"

"Oh," Luke said realization dawning.

"Oh? That's all you have to say? Oh? Here I am making myself crazy trying to plan _your _wedding in a month's time and you backstab me like this!"

"Sookie, I didn't backstab you! I had no idea that guy was gonna be there!"

Sookie went on as if Luke hadn't spoken, "And you had access to all my recipes all night and that wasn't good enough for you! You just _had _to throw in one of your own and get some recognition for yourself!"

"Again, Sookie, I didn't know he was going to be there," he said in frustration but it was clear that Sookie was in no mood to listen to reason.

"As if that weren't bad enough, you had to go and screw up my béchamel with the damn walnuts!"

"I didn't put walnuts in the béchamel," he shouted back. "I told you that that night when you kept second-guessing my judgment!"

"No? Then how come there's no mention of it! Every time a critic has ever tried my béchamel it's gotten rave reviews, but not this time 'cause _you _screwed it up! No, this article's all 'Luke's lamb chops' and 'Luke's special omelet' and 'Luke's this' and 'Luke's that!' What about the fact that it's Sookie's kitchen!"

"Hey, the guy also wrote in there that I was only a sub for the 'more well-known Sookie St James.' That's a compliment," he pointed out as he walked behind the counter and deposited the dirty dishes into a bus tub.

"How is that a compliment? That doesn't say anything about _my _skills! He could just as well be saying that I'm well-known for serving food that tastes like dog poo!" Sookie cried as she followed Luke behind the counter.

"Get out from behind my counter," Luke said.

"Are you serious?"

"Don't I look serious," he asked with a stern glare. "Move it!" He pointed to the other side of the counter.

"Fine," Sookie grumbled as she moved from behind the counter. "I just can't believe this after you went everywhere in my kitchen."

"Look, I didn't wanna be in your kitchen in the first place! I only did it as a favor to you and Lorelai!"

"And what a favor it was," Sookie said sarcastically. "I bet you just love this, don't you? You spent all that time in _my _kitchen with _my _staff and _my _recipes, stealing _my _glory and all because I was pregnant!"

"Like that's my fault? If you didn't wanna be pregnant, maybe that's something you should have discussed with your husband!"

"I never said I didn't wanna be pregnant! I'm not anti-kid like you are!"

"I'm not anti-kid, Sookie! In case you've forgotten, we've got a kid on the way!"

"But every time someone comes in here with a kid, you're all grouchy and impatient like they're a big pain in the ass!"

Lorelai who had watched all of this with some amusement up to that point, decided to step in before things started getting really ugly. "Sookie, Honey, calm down," She said laying a soothing hand on her friend's shoulder.

Sookie jerked away from her angrily and said, "Leave me alone! You're just as big a backstabber as he is! You invited him to take over my kitchen! Plus you…you're sleeping with the enemy!"

"Jeez," Luke said in irritation.

"Luke is not the enemy. He really helped us out that night. None of you kitchen staff knew what to do without you there. That's how good you are," she said trying to soothe her friend's bruised ego. "They were lost without you. He just stepped in to help, that's all."

"And stole what should have been _my _review in the process! And I've been running around like a crazy person trying to plan a surprise engagement party for the two of you and then I find out about this!"

"Way to blow the surprise," Gypsy muttered from her seat at the counter.

Lorelai's eyes widened in surprise as she said, "You were planning us a party?"

"It was _supposed _to be a surprise, "Miss Patty said with a glare at Sookie.

"You were in on it too?"Luke said to Patty.

"We all were," Patty said indicating Babette and Morey sitting with her. "You know how we've all been rooting for you and Lorelai. Even Taylor was helping and that's really saying something."

"I was gonna DJ," Kirk piped up. "I even got KC to lend me his karaoke equipment 'cause some people in town wanted to sing for you guys, but I guess that's shot now."

"It doesn't have to be," Lorelai said with a smile elated that their neighbors thought so much of them.

"But _somebody _blew the surprise," Babette grumbled.

"Look, Babette," Luke said. "It doesn't matter that the surprise is blown. You guys can still have your party and we'll show up and pretend to be surprised, ok?"

"Yeah, whatever," Babette replied half-heartedly with a look at Sookie who was looking cornered.

"Hey, are you ok," Luke said to Sookie.

"Yeah, I guess," Sookie said with a shrug. "But I'm still mad at you."

"Come on, Sookie, you know that I didn't intentionally try to take any attention away from you."

"I know," she said hanging her head slightly. "It just bugs me, you know? How would you feel if I took over your kitchen for a day and something like this happened?"

"Like I would ever let you take over my kitchen again," Luke said. "I like my kitchen just the way it is. The last time you were in my kitchen I couldn't find anything for a week, you threw out everything I already has prepped, you scared Caesar half to death you and you were doing cutesy little things like making rosettes out of the butter and other stupid stuff like that."

"But suppose when I'd been here that day, a food critic had come in wanting to review your cooking and I got the glory instead all because you were nice enough to let me use your kitchen."

"That was a different situation! The inn had just burned and you needed a place to feed your guests. I ran your kitchen that night because you weren't physically able to do it yourself."

"But…"

"Look, Sookie, you took over my kitchen once, I took over your kitchen once. The way I see it, we're even. Now, I'm sorry that you're bothered by this. Maybe you're right. Maybe that review should have been yours, but it wasn't. I can't help that and I didn't ask for it. I didn't know the guy was gonna be there and neither did you. One thing you should think about in all this is that even though it was my cooking that he reviewed, he came to the inn specifically because he'd heard good things about you. I wasn't the chef he wanted to see, you were. You should be proud of that at least."

Sookie's face brightened a little at Luke's statement. "He did come to see me, didn't he? I'm that good."

"You know you're good at what you do. Better than me," he said in an effort to smooth Sookie's ruffled feathers.

"You're good too, but you know, with a little of my input, you could double your business," Sookie said enthusiastically.

"Look around, Sookie," Luke said impatiently already regretting his compliments to her. "I've got all the business I need here. Now, don't you have a kitchen of your own to get to?"

"Yeah, yeah" she said with a glare. As she made her way to the door, she noticed Richard sitting there who'd been silently watching the drama around him unfold. "Hey, Richard, I didn't see you there. I'm sorry I didn't say hello."

"That's quite all right, Sookie. It seems your attention was directed elsewhere," he said with a bemused looked on his face as he glanced at his son-in-law-to-be who was still shaking his head over the situation.

"So, are you and Emily coming to the party tomorrow?"

"I wasn't aware until just now that there was a party or that we were invited."

"Hmmm…That's weird. I left three messages on your machine to let you and Emily know what we were planning. Didn't you guys get them," she asked unaware that there was any tension between husband and wife. She bit her lip nervously wondering if Lorelai was still feuding with her mother and Emily had just neglected to mention the party to Richard because of it.

"I haven't listened to the machine, but maybe Emily has. I'll have to ask her about it, but I assure you, messages or not, we will be there," he said.

"Great! It's tomorrow night at seven, right out there in the square," she said excitedly happy that Lorelai seemed to be working things out with her parents. "Seeya then!"

"Later, Sook," Lorelai said as she re-joined her father at their table while Sookie made her way out the door.

"Your friend is a complete nut," Luke groused as he returned to the table with two coffee pots in hand.

"Yeah, but she'd a lovable nut," Lorelai said. "It's so sweet that she wants to throw us a party."

"I agree," Richard said. "It's nice that you have the support of your whole community."

"It is," Lorelai agreed. "It's just sad that I can't get that much support from my own mother."

"More coffee," Luke said trying to change the subject in order to keep Lorelai from dwelling on her mother's actions.

"That stuff? No, thank you," she said as she turned up her nose. "I'll just get the real stuff from Sookie later. She still loves me," she pouted.

"Well, I'll have to have a talk with Sookie then," Luke said.

"I'd like to see that. She's pretty pissed at you right now."

"She'll get over it, especially if I offer her something in trade, like say, my lamp chop recipe," he said with a grin.

"You would stoop that low? Conspiring with my best friend to keep me caffeine-deprived?"

"If that's what it takes to keep our kid safe and healthy."

"I'd like another cup of coffee, Luke," Richard interjected causing Lorelai to bite back the comment she was going to make, leaving her stewing in silence instead.

"It's for your own good," Luke said while he poured Richard's coffee.

"Just go on about your business, Mr. Coffee Police," she said waving him off.

"Whatever," he said shaking his head as he returned the coffee pots to their burners.

Richard chuckled at Lorelai's frustration and said, "I don't think he's going to give in on this one."

"Believe me, I'll _find _a way to get him to give in," Lorelai replied with a grin.

"I don't think I want to know what method you plan to use to get him to give in on the coffee issue."

"Let's just say I have ways of convincing him to do what I want."

"I have no doubt that's true. You've certainly got him wrapped around your little finger," he said with a smile. "So, tell me what your ideas are for your wedding."

Father and daughter continued their breakfast chatting about the upcoming wedding and the plans that were being made before they both returned to the house to retrieve their vehicles and start their work days. On his drive back to Hartford, Richard thought again of his wife and was dreading the confrontation that he knew he was going to face when he got home in the evening and the drama that would surely ensue at dinner and tried to formulate a plan to keep said drama to a minimum.

* * *

Emily walked into the law office and was warmly greeted by the red-headed attorney. "Hello, Mrs. Gilmore. Please have a seat, "Nicole Leahy said as she gestured to the chair in front of her desk.

"Thank you," Emily replied as she took a seat. "I appreciate you seeing me on such short notice."

"I had a last minute cancellation, so it's really no problem. I understand from what you told my assistant that you're concerned that your daughter is engaged to a man with a violent side," Nicole inquired.

"Yes, I've seen this man lose his temper at the drop of a hat and I've heard from his neighbors that he has a propensity for destruction of property when he's having one of these fits of temper," she explained trying to gain some sense from the woman's reaction whether Luke had ever behaved violently toward her.

"Has he acted violently toward your daughter? Or hurt her in any way," Nicole probed.

"She swears that he hasn't but I don't quite believe her," she said as she laid it on thick. "He threatened to kill me just a few days ago when I merely suggested that he and my daughter weren't suited to each other."

"Well, a man can't be prosecuted for that. A lot of people say things that they don't mean in the heat of the moment, but it's usually just an idle threat. Now, do you know of any violent incidents in the past? Toward your daughter, I mean."

"No, but even if he hasn't done anything, I have a feeling that it's only a matter of time before he does something to her or to my grandchild," Emily said trying to make the situation sound more desperate than it was. She'd been hoping that by taking this tactic, it would get the woman talking about her own experiences with Luke and the car incident.

"There's a child involved?"

"Not yet, but my daughter's pregnant and I'm deeply concerned for her safety," Emily said with a sigh.

"Have there been police reports filed, formal complaints from neighbors about disturbances, anything like that?"

"No, my daughter's so obsessed with this man that she can see straight when it comes to him and while his neighbors are more than willing to share information on his violent nature, nobody seems to want to do anything about it. Maybe because they live in a small community, I don't know. I just wish I knew what to do."

Nicole frowned and said, "Well, unfortunately, if there's been no documented history of domestic violence and she's unwilling to report any such incidents, there's really not a lot I can do. Your daughter has to want to do something about it. If she were a minor, that would be a different story, but since she's an adult, she has to take the first step by reporting problems to the police. Until she's willing to do that, there's nothing I can do to help you."

"There has to be something that can be done, Miss Leahy. It is Miss Leahy, isn't it," Emily asked abandoning her original plan in favor of a new one.

"Yes, that's my name," Nicole replied wondering what the woman across from her was up to as the tone in her voice had just changed drastically. A moment ago, she'd been pleading for her daughter's safety and now she was speaking in a tone that suggested she was trying to interrogate her.

"I was just making sure. I didn't know if you still went by your married name, like some divorced women do. So, you don't go by Mrs. Danes anymore then?"

"I never went by Mrs. Danes," Nicole answered now starting to see where this was going. "I get it now. Gilmore, small community, I should've seen it sooner. I just didn't make the connection since New York's far from Stars Hollow and Gilmore's a fairly common name. You're Lorelai's mother," she said bitterly narrowing her eyes at the realization.

"Yes," Emily confirmed."You know my daughter?"

"Of course I know her. You don't forget the woman your husband left you for. You can leave now," Nicole said coolly as she rose from her seat and indicated the door to her office.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I don't like you coming in here and wasting my time under the pretense of concern for your daughter's safety just to use me to get to Luke."

"I want that man out of my daughter's life," Emily said hotly as she too rose from her seat.

"Good luck with that one," Nicole said sarcastically. "I tried repeatedly to get her out of Luke's life and all I did was drive him right to her and for the record, he is _not _aviolent man, hot-tempered, yes but not violent."

"You don't know what you're talking about. I've seen his irrational behavior with my own eyes."

"I _do _know what I'm talking about. I _was _married to him after all. I know that while he has his faults, he's not the type that would ever raise his hand to a woman. We had some of the worst fights known to mankind and he never laid a hand on me."

"What about the car that he beat up when he caught you with another man?"

"That was a car, not a person and how do you even know all this?"

"The arrest is a matter of public record," Emily said using the private detective's words. "It didn't take too much effort to find out what was behind it, especially since Stars Hollow is such a small town."

"Look, none of this is any of your business!"

"Not my business? How can you say that? My daughter is on the verge of throwing away her entire future on this man! She's planning on marrying him and she's carrying his child!"

"So, that wasn't just part of your charade, then," Nicole questioned biting on her lower lip in displeasure at the thought of Lorelai having Luke's child.

"No, it was not," Emily said. "Your ex-husband got my daughter pregnant and now she's throwing away everything to be with him. She's alienated her daughter; she's neglecting her business, she's cutting me and her father out of her life and immersing herself in nothing but this man. I want this to stop."

"Just what the hell do you think I can do about it?" Nicole exclaimed getting angry now. "Luke and I are divorced. We have been for more than a year and do you wanna know the reason we're divorced? Your trampy daughter! He used the fact that I'd cheated as an excuse to go through with the divorce and treated me like I was some kind of whore when he was the one who started cheating first. He'd stopped coming home long before that and even when he did, he was never really _there! _When I'd ask him about his day, everything that came out of his mouth was 'Lorelai did this' and 'Lorelai did that'! It all came to a head when I had to go on a trip to Boston for business, a trip that I begged him to go with me on, but he said he couldn't possibly leave Stars Hollow and his business. Then one night while I'm there, he shows up there unexpectedly all dressed up, talking about how he wants to take me out. I was so excited that he was making an effort that I went to greet him with a hug and that's when I noticed that sickening sweet smell of Lorelai's fruity perfume on him. Do you have any idea what that was like for me! To know that he'd been with her that night before he came to me? How would you feel to be your husband's second choice? We had this huge fight over it which ended with him storming out and running back to Stars Hollow. Then as if that wasn't bad enough, when I got home from that trip, I found out that he'd written her a check for thirty thousand dollars without telling me about it! That was the final straw! He swore up and down that he was just helping out a friend in need, but I knew what kind of _needs_ he was really helping her with," she said scathingly.

"That must have been awful for you," Emily stated.

"Don't patronize me," Nicole said fiercely. "You have no idea what I went through over him! I do have to admit that it was my own stupid fault. I knew from the time we started dating that his heart wasn't in it. It was always Lorelai he wanted, not me! Our marriage was over from the day we said 'I do'" I was just too blind to see it. When he proposed, I thought maybe he was actually serious and I jumped at the chance, but it turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life!"

"He wasn't ready to settle down," Emily queried.

"He was. That's the problem. He wanted to settle down and have kids and a house and the works, just not with me. It was always her. She knew it, too. She wasn't stupid. She knew that all she had to do was look at him with that pouty expression on her face to get him to do whatever she wanted. I tried to convince myself for a long time that he really was just her friend and that he wouldn't have married me if he didn't want to be with me, but deep down I knew better. No matter what I did, I couldn't change the fact that she was the one he was in love with. So, if what you're saying is true and he's engaged to her, there is no stopping it."

"It _is _true. They're planning a wedding for next month, even though they've only been engaged for a week. I can only assume that they're rushing the wedding because of my daughter's pregnancy," Emily said with disdain

"Look, I don't know why you felt the need to come here. If you think there's a way for me to stop the wedding, you're barking up the wrong tree. If I couldn't get Luke to be faithful to me while we were married, what makes you think I can do anything now?"

"There must be _something _you know about him that Lorelai doesn't, something that would change her mind about marrying him."

"I highly doubt there's anything I know about him that she doesn't. She probably knows him better than I do," she said with a sigh. "The fact is that even though he and I didn't work out as a couple, Luke is a decent guy. He's a hard worker, and a big part of his community and he's a loyal friend."

"He wasn't a loyal husband, it seems," Emily pointed out.

"No, but I don't entirely blame him for that. I was just as much to blame for the divorce as he was. I accepted his proposal even though I knew it wasn't right. I tried to make him love me when he didn't and I failed. Trust me when I say that if you're trying to get between him and Lorelai, you'll fail too."

"I refuse to accept that," Emily said adamantly.

"Then you're a fool," Nicole stated. "Now, I think I've sufficiently embarrassed myself by dredging up the past and I've got work to do, so you can see yourself out."

"We're not done here! There must be something you could say to him!"

"Yes, we are. We're done," Nicole said firmly. "I'm trying to move forward with my life, not backward. I don't want to discuss my failed marriage or my ex-husband anymore! I've already said way more than I wanted to and I'm done! Luke is a part of my past and I want it to stay that way! If he's with Lorelai now, then there's no way he's looking back at me either! Nothing I could say to him could possibly make a difference! I already told you, he never wanted me to begin with! I appreciate your concern for your daughter, but it's unfounded. He'd never do anything to hurt her. I've seen all too clearly how much he loves her. You're not going to change his mind or hers for that matter. She went after him while we were still together, not caring that he was married to me! Now that she's got him, there's no way in hell she's going to let go of him! That wedding will happen no matter what you try to do to stop it. Now, I've asked you to leave twice already! Don't make me call security to have you thrown out!"

"All right, you've made your point," Emily said in a huff as she made her way out the door still stewing over the situation. Her two hour drive to New York hadn't been entirely wasted though. She'd at least gotten confirmation from Luke's ex-wife that her suspicions were correct and the love affair between him and her daughter had started while he was still married. That would be something she could use as a new point of attack in her crusade to ensure her daughter's future.

* * *

Luke and Lorelai walked across the town square hand in hand after their appointment with the doctor both grinning from ear to ear. "Where are we going, Luke? The diner's that way," Lorelai said in protest.

"I've got a surprise for you," he said as he guided her in the direction he wanted her to go.

"Ooh, I like surprises," she said excitedly. When they reached the Twickham house, he pulled a set of keys from his pocket with a smile and unlocked the front door while Lorelai squealed with delight. As soon as Luke had closed the door behind him, he pulled Lorelai into his arms and kissed her fervently. He then lowered himself to his knees and placed a tender kiss to her stomach. She reached down and held his head against her for a moment and said, "So, you're happy?"

"Yeah," he choked out overcome with emotion. He pulled back from her and lightly stroked her stomach. "There's really a baby in there."

"You already knew that," Lorelai said with a smile. "You were there with me when I took the test, remember?"

"I know," he said as he got to his feet and looked into her eyes. "But hearing the doctor confirm it just made it seem really real, you know? We made a baby," he said softly as he gazed at her and caressed her face.

"Yes, we did," she said smiling back before pulling him to her and kissing him fiercely. When she broke the kiss, she said breathlessly, "I can't believe you did this. How did you manage to get the keys to the house so soon?"

"How do you think? I threatened Taylor," he said with a grin.

"You didn't," she said.

"Ok, no, I didn't. I just told him we needed to get into the house to start making plans and he was too busy to show us around the place himself so he just handed me the keys and told me to get them back to him by the end of the day. But I would've threatened him if he hadn't given in," he said. "I just…I really wanted you to see this place without all the creepy museum crap inside."

Lorelai looked around the house. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and tried to envision them living there. She already saw in her mind where she wanted her trusty TV to go. "It's beautiful," she said with a smile.

"You wanna see the upstairs?"He asked.

"Let's go," she said as she let him lead her up the stairs and into the room off to the right of the landing.

"This is the master bedroom," he said as they entered the room. He walked across the room and opened the French doors leading to the balcony that overlooked the town square. "It's kind of nice having the balcony here. That way when you drag me to all this town's goofball festivals that you love and I hate and I get tired of the insanity of our town, you can stay out there and enjoy yourself while I could come up here and watch you have your fun without us being too far away from each other."

"It's perfect," she said softly, touched by the fact that he'd put so much thought into their future, before bestowing another kiss on her loving fiancée. One kiss turned into another and another until Lorelai pulled him back into the bedroom and breathlessly whispered, "Luke, let's make love."

"Here? Now?"

"Right here, right now," she said as she kissed him again slipping her arms behind his head, knocking his baseball cap to the floor and began nibbling at his neck. "We have to properly christen our new bedroom," she whispered seductively as she lowered her hands to his butt and pressed herself against him.

Luke sighed contentedly as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately. "I swear, one of these days you're gonna kill me," he muttered in a low growl as he lowered both of them to the floor of what would soon be their new home.

A while later Luke grunted as Lorelai collapsed on top of him, trying hard to catch her breath. "Wow," he said breathlessly.

"Yeah," she said with a smile as moved slightly causing Luke to grunt against as her weight pressed him into the hardwood. "Are you ok, Babe," she asked as she raised her head to look at him.

"Fine, I'm just suddenly rethinking the whole sex-on-a-hardwood floor thing," he said as he shifted uncomfortably.

"I didn't hear you complaining two minutes ago," she teased.

"Not complaining now, just a little uncomfortable," he said as he tried to redistribute her weight a little.

"So, no more sex on our bedroom floor, check."

"Maybe if we get some rugs or something so it's not so hard."

"Dirty," she said with a giggle.

"I so set you up for that," he said with a groan.

"Ooh, can we get some of those really thick fuzzy rugs, the kind that feel really good on your bare feet?"

"Sure, whatever you want," he said as he ran his fingers through her hair and pulled her down to him for a kiss. "I think the decorating part is pretty much your territory."

"Well, the remodeling part's yours. You're the one who knows about woodworking and architecture and stuff."

"I don't know that much about that stuff. We're still gonna have to hire a contractor. I'm thinking Tom did a good job with the inn and the diner so what do you think about having him do the work on the house?"

"I think that's a great idea," she said a little too exuberantly causing Luke to groan again as her weight shifted again.

"That's it. I have to get up now. I can't take this floor anymore."

"Ok," she said as she reluctantly pulled herself up and reached for her discarded clothing, allowing Luke to get up as well. "So, show me the rest of our house."

They both got dressed and Luke continued to show her the house. They walked into the next room and he said a little hesitantly, "I…um…I was thinking this room would make a good nursery."

Lorelai looked at the room and said, "I think so too." She took his hand in hers and asked,"Why are you so nervous?"

"I don't know. I just…I want you to like the house. I know it's gonna be hard for you to leave your house and I…uh…I want to know that you'll be happy here."

"I _do _like this house and I _will _be happyhere as long as you're here with me." She lifted her hand to lightly stroke his stubbled jaw and kissed him softly before finally voicing her thought from earlier by saying, "I love it that you've put so much thought into how to turn this house into a home for us."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "Now, come on, let's finish this tour. I've got some work to do at the inn before we go to Hartford tonight since I wasn't there yesterday."

"Ok," he said as he again took her hand and showed her the rest of the house envisioning the changes that would need to be made to make it livable while Lorelai was mentally picking out paint colors for every room in the house.

When they stepped into the library off of the living room, Lorelai gasped and said, "Oh my God, Rory would love this room."

"Yeah, I thought so too. When I was in here working on the museum, I kept thinking of Rory and how much she loves books. I thought if things worked out the way I wanted them to for us that this room would make her happy and keep her from having to store all her excess books in her dresser like she's done for years."

Lorelai looked at him adoringly and said, "You've been thinking about this for a while then?"

"Yeah, it's why I agreed to help with the museum in the first place. I wanted this house for us, for Rory, for our family," he confessed.

"You've been thinking about us in that way for that long?"

"Yeah, Ever since I saw you standing at the altar at your parents' wedding thing. During the ceremony, I kept picturing us up there saying 'I do'. Dumb, huh?"

"No, not dumb," she said reassuringly as she took another look around the large library. "So, your kidnapping plot, do you think it could still work, at least for long enough to show Rory this amazing room?" She had wanted so badly to share all the wonderful changes in her life with Rory, but she'd found out that her mother had beaten her to the punch. She wanted at least one thing that she could share with her daughter. She blinked back the tears that had started to form as Luke wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her in his comforting embrace. "I'm sorry," she said as she let the tears fall on Luke's well-worn flannel.

"Shhh," he said soothingly. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

"Yes, I do," she wailed. "You've done such a crazy wonderful job thinking about everything and making plans for our future and I don't want you to think that I'm not happy about this. I'm…I…I'm _so _happy with you, but…"

"You wanna share it with Rory. You think I don't get that, but I do," he lifted her chin and looked into her tear-filled eyes and added, "That's why I'm willing to put up with even more of your mother's brutal attack on me tonight. So you and Rory can try to hash this out and we can get her back on the right path. I know you're happy with me and that we're starting a family, but I also know that our family won't be complete without Rory in it."

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I'm sorry that I'm so blubbery when you're trying so hard to make me happy. I think the pregnancy hormones are making me a little crazy."

"As opposed to how stable you were before," he quipped with an impish grin.

"Hey, don't mock my craziness" she said as she swatted at him playfully giggling a little.

"Now, that's what I like to see," he said indicating her smile.

"How is it that no matter how bad I feel, you can always make me laugh?"

"Just call me Shecky," he said dryly causing Lorelai to laugh even harder. Luke's smile widened as he heard her laughing as he tried to expand on his ideas for turning Rory around and getting her home where she belonged. As a thought struck him on how to accomplish this, he pulled back from her a little and said, "Listen, I've got some errands to run before we go to your parents' house tonight and you said you had to get back to this inn, so we should get out of here for now."

"What kind of errands, stuff for the diner?"

"No, just stuff to do. I'll fill you in later," he said as he walked out of the room and toward the front door.

"That's it? You're not gonna' tell me?" she questioned as she followed him out the door and they began to walk across the square.

"Nope, not yet, but I promise I will tell you everything when the time is right."

"The time is right now," she pleaded with him as they reached the street in front of the diner where their vehicles were parked."You're not planning on buying another house without telling me, are you?"

Luke glared at her and said, "No. This has nothing to do with you and me." When it looked like Lorelai was going to protest again, he said, "Look, would you just trust me?" The truth was he didn't want to tell her what he was up to until he was sure that he'd be able to do what he wanted to. He wasn't sure if his plan for getting Rory to listen to reason would work and he didn't want her to get her hopes up, just to have them dashed.

"I guess," she said skeptically.

"Good, now you need to get back to the inn and I need to get my errands run, so I'll see you back at the house later," he said as he pecked her lips and made his way to his truck to begin putting his plan into action.

"Ok, Mystery Guy," she said still wondering what he was up to while she got into her jeep and made her way back to the inn.

* * *

Richard pulled into his driveway and sat there in his car for a moment after turning the engine off dreading stepping foot into the house knowing that as soon as he did, Emily was sure to try to resume their argument of the night before. He removed his keys from the ignition, stepped out of the car, and stared at the house for a moment thinking about what was waiting for him inside. He decided to hold off the confrontation he knew was sure to come by walking to the pool house to talk to his granddaughter instead. He knew he was a coward in doing so, but he didn't want this evening to start off with Emily already in a bad mood. He was deeply concerned that her actions would have an adverse effect on Lorelai and the child she was carrying. He was happy about being a grandfather again and he didn't want to take the chance that his arguing with Emily would cause her to again attack Luke or Lorelai and pile even more stress on their pregnant daughter. He knocked on the door of the pool house and upon hearing his granddaughter answer stepped into the room.

"Hi, Grandpa," she greeted him.

"Hello, Rory. You look very pretty tonight," he said indicating the fancy dress she was wearing.

"Thanks. All dressed for dinner tonight," she said. "Grandma said it was going to be kind of a celebratory thing for Mom and Luke, so I just thought I'd gussy up a little."

Richard sensed a little sadness in her voice that he guessed was coming from the fact that Lorelai herself hadn't been the one to share the news with her. "Your grandmother told you that that's what this dinner is for?"

"Um…Yeah," she answered a little awkwardly. "Isn't it?"

"Well…" he hesitated. He didn't think it wise to tell her that the true motive behind this dinner was to try to talk her into going back to school. "Of course," he lied feeling guilty for doing so." I'm just surprised that she told you that considering that she hasn't been the greatest supporter of your mother's relationship with Luke."

"Well, maybe she's starting to come around," Rory said. "I mean, with Mom being pregnant, she'd want her to get married. I've heard her say for years that she should have married my dad when she got pregnant with me."

"True," he said as he wondered what Emily's motivations were in telling Rory such an outright lie. Emily wanted no part of helping to celebrate their daughter's engagement to Luke. She'd done nothing the past few days but try to tear them apart. "So, how do you feel about this whole situation? I know it's a lot to process."

"It is, but if Mom's happy then I'm happy for her," she said though she didn't sound very convinced of that. "And Luke's a great guy. He really loves Mom and I think that he's the one who has what it takes to make her happy. Plus, I know from first-hand experience with the way he's always been there for me that he'll make a great dad."

"But…?"He queried trying to get to the root of Rory's sadness.

"But nothing, Grandpa," she said defensively. "I'm happy for them, really."

"Rory, you know if there's something bothering you, you can always talk to me." When Rory remained silent, he prodded further, "What is it, Rory? Do you object to Luke being your step-father?"

"No," she insisted. "If any guy was going to be my step-father, I'd want it to be Luke. He's been more like a father to me than my own dad ever has been. It's just…"

"Just what, Rory?"

"It's just with him having a kid of his own, I worry that there's no room in his life for me anymore. He won't need me to be his surrogate daughter if he's got his own kid to be a dad to."

"You can't honestly believe that that's true. If you could hear the way that he talks about you, you'd know without a doubt that he loves you just as much as he will love any child of his own."

"I know that he loves me, but maybe all that will change when he's holding his own baby and watching that kid grow up. And Mom will feel differently about that baby than me too, since this time she'll be having a baby with someone she's actually in love with. I mean, Luke bought her a house and he's gonna be doing all the stuff for their kid that my dad should have done for me. They're gonna have a brand new family of their own and I don't fit into that family. I'm just Mom's teenage mistake."

"Rory, you listen to me. You are _not _a mistake! You were a surprise, yes, but it turned out to be a wonderful surprise."

"Yeah, so wonderful that Mom couldn't wait to get rid of me to make room for Luke and the new baby," she said bitterly.

"Why on earth would you think that your mother's trying to get rid of you? She loves you."

"Well, it's awfully convenient that less than a week after she told me I couldn't come home, Luke was moving in and she's making plans to sell the house I grew up in. It's like she's trying to erase the evidence of her bastard offspring now that she's getting married and doing things the right way this time."

"That's simply not true. Your mother is deeply hurt by your estrangement and wants nothing more than to make things right with you. You'll see when she gets here tonight."

"Maybe," she said unconvinced. "We'll have to wait and see."

"I don't think you'll have long to wait," Richard said. "I think I just heard Luke's truck roar in."

"Sounds like it," she said.

"Well, shall we go then?" he said offering her his arm.

"Yeah, I guess," she said as she linked her arm through her grandfather's and leaned on him a little for support while they made their way to the main house.

* * *

Luke took Lorelai's hand as he helped her out of the truck. "Have I mentioned how beautiful you look tonight?" he said.

"You might have mentioned it," she said with a smile. "You look pretty good yourself," she added indicating his very rare shaved face and the suit he was wearing with the blue dress shirt he'd worn the night of the magazine party.

"Thanks," he said and took in her appearance again. "You look amazing, though I can't figure out why you insisted on wearing that dress again," he said indicating the pink sparkly dress she was wearing. "You know that your mother's just going to jump on you for it when she sees how revealing it is."

"I wore this dress because it's symbolic of our strength as a couple. That no matter what she does, we're staying together," she explained. "This was the dress I wore the night we had our back-together date after she broke us up and I wore it the other night after she tried to break us up again. So, when we get in there and she starts harping on us and our relationship again, I want something positive to focus on. That and I'll be thinking about how much you love taking this dress off of me and how I just might let you take it off me again when we get home tonight," she said with a wicked grin.

"I don't know about that one. Our…activities earlier kind of left me a little stiff," he said and cringed at his choice of phrasing know what the next word out of her mouth was going to be.

"Um…dirty," she said as he'd known she would.

"Come on, let's get in there and get this over with," he said with a shake of his head as he reached into the truck for the file folder he'd brought with him after his errands in the afternoon.

"So, you never did tell me what's in that folder or what these mysterious errands of yours were earlier," she said as they made their way up to the house.

"You'll find out soon enough," he said evasively as he rang the bell.

"Come on, Luke," she begged as the door was opened by yet another new maid and they were ushered inside. "You promised you'd tell me what you were up to."

"And I will, but you'll just have to wait," he said firmly.

"You know me, Luke. I'm not very good at waiting for anything," she said as the maid took their jackets and they walked toward the living room.

"Haven't you ever heard curiosity killed the cat?"

"I'm not a cat, though you do know how to make me purr," she said suggestively as they stepped into the living room where they knew Emily was waiting to pounce.

"Hello, Lorelai," Emily greeted her daughter choosing to ignore her inappropriate comment.

"Hi, Mom, "Lorelai said with a nervous glance at Luke as she clung to him for support just waiting for some scathing comment from her mother.

"Hello, Luke," Emily said as she took in his appearance. "Don't you look dashing tonight? Blue is very becoming on you. It really brings out the color in your eyes," she said in a pleasant tone.

"Um, thanks, Emily," he said awkwardly as he and Lorelai shared a bewildered look both wondering why she was being so nice to him all of a sudden.

"I've always thought Luke looked good in blue," Lorelai said. "And I loved this shirt," she said as she stroked his chest affectionately knowing that it would set her mother off.

Luke took her hand with his free one and removed it from his chest. "You just keep your hands to yourself. The last time you got a hold of this shirt, I had to sew two buttons back on it the next day," he said with a glance at Emily as if daring her to say something.

"Well, look at what came out of it. That was the night our baby was made," she said with a devilish grin at Luke knowing that he mother was holding back her withering comments for some reason unknown to her. She couldn't figure out what she was up to. The past few days, she'd said whatever was on her mind regardless of how hurtful it was and she knew there was something that was brewing just underneath the surface of her polite façade. She also knew that her mother wouldn't approve of the direction this conversation was heading and would have something to say. She didn't like her mother's disapproval but it was better than this unnatural calm. At least the judgmental glares and snide remarks were honest. Whatever her mother had planned for the evening, she wanted it out in the open.

Emily bit back a retort and said as politely as she could, "Why don't you two make yourselves comfortable."

"Ok," Lorelai said as she and Luke sat together on the sofa and Luke set his file on the end table beside him. She was deeply unnerved by the fact that her mother hadn't taken another swipe at her relationship with Luke or her unplanned pregnancy when she'd so boldly given her the opportunity to do so.

"So, Luke, what's in the folder," Emily asked trying to make conversation before Rory arrived and she could set her plan for the evening in motion.

Lorelai looked at Luke expectantly and said, "I'd like to know that, too."

"Just some stuff I thought might help to get Rory back where she belongs," he said pointedly letting Emily know once again that he didn't approve of the way things had gone with Rory's decision to drop out of Yale.

"I see," Emily said with a smile that belied her true intentions.

"Where is Rory, anyway," Lorelai asked her mother.

"Probably still in the pool house, but I made sure she knew to be here tonight."

"And Dad? Where's he at?"Lorelai probed wishing her father were there to provide a kind of buffer between her and her mother.

"Oh, you know how your father is. I imagine he's gotten wrapped up in work and is still at the office," she said in a tone that was a lot calmer than she felt considering that she and her husband hadn't spoken since the night before.

"So, have you and Dad talked since you had your fight last night?"Lorelai probed wondering if they'd made up.

"What makes you think that your father and I had a fight?"Emily asked coolly.

"Oh, I don't know, Mom. Maybe the fact that Dad told me you guys had a fight when he had dinner with us last night."

"Your father had dinner with you last night?"Emily asked in surprise. She'd known her husband had said he was going to Stars Hollow but she hadn't imagined that it had gone that far.

"Yes, he did. A dinner that Luke cooked and that Dad complimented, by the way," Lorelai informed her mother.

"I'm sure that your father was just being polite. Diner fare is not exactly his favorite type of cuisine."

"Come on, Mom. You know Dad doesn't give compliments unless he means them. And for the record, we didn't eat dinner at the diner. We had dinner at home, which you should have known. I'm sure you remember Luke brining groceries home in the middle of our argument yesterday."

"Yes, of course. How forgetful of me," she said as she realized her daughter was right. Richard never complimented anything or anyone if he didn't mean it. She glanced at Luke, wondering just what kind of food he would have prepared that would have earned him a compliment from her husband, who was often critical of the food that was served in their own home. "As for this so-called fight, it was nothing more than a minor disagreement."

"If it was so minor why is it that he spent the night at our house?"She challenged her mother as she found it very interesting that while her mother was trying to break up her relationship she was succeeding only in damaging her own.

Before Emily could answer, their conversation was interrupted by Rory and Richard entering the room through the French doors. "Richard, where have you been?"

"I thought you said he was at the office, Mom," Lorelai said.

Richard ignored his wife and turned to greet his daughter with a kiss to the cheek. "Hello, Lorelai. How are you?"

"I'm good, Dad," she said with a smile. "You?"

"Wonderful, "he said before turning to Luke and shaking his hand. "Luke, how are you, Son?"He asked ignoring Emily's piercing glares.

"I'm doing well," Luke said.

"And how's the diner? Is it still busy?"

Emily stared at her husband in disbelief that he was blatantly ignoring her. "Richard, did you not hear me? I asked you where you've been."

Richard turned to his wife. "Emily, why don't Luke and Lorelai have drinks? Surely you haven't forgotten your manners," he said still ignoring her question.

"Richard, what's the matter with you?"

"There's absolutely nothing the matter with me, Emily. I'm merely inquiring about drinks. I've only been gone for one day. Certainly in that short a time, our tradition of having drinks before dinner hasn't changed."

"No, of course, it hasn't," Emily said impatiently.

"Well, since you don't seem inclined to do anything about it, I'll have to attend to it myself. Lorelai, what would you like to drink? I know that with a baby on the way you can't have a cocktail, but we have other things."

"Just a club soda's fine, Dad," Lorelai answered.

"The same for me, if you don't mind, Richard," Luke said.

"Fine," Richard said.

"You're not drinking tonight, Luke?"Emily asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I'm not really a big drinker anyway, plus I'm driving tonight, so I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"Very wise. Rory, your usual coke," Richard asked.

"Yes, please," Rory replied as Richard went to the bar to get the drinks. Rory looked at her grandparents wondering what was causing the tension between them.

"You say you're not a big drinker, yet I seem to recall Lorelai saying that the lack of precautions that led to her pregnancy was due to the fact that you'd both been drinking heavily that night."

"Mom, I never said we were drinking heavily," Lorelai said."I said we were tipsy and Luke's telling the truth. He_ doesn't_ drink much. That's why the alcohol he did drink hit him so hard."

"So, the magazine party false alarm really wasn't a false alarm," Rory said.

"No, Hon, it wasn't."

"Well, congratulations," she said half-heartedly.

"Gee, that was heartfelt," Lorelai said sarcastically.

"Wait a minute," Luke said to Lorelai. "How does Rory know about the magazine party thing when you haven't talked to her in a week?"

"Here are your drinks," Richard said as he handed them around in an effort to quell the rising storm. Emily stared at him with a scowl when she noticed that he hadn't made her a drink. She walked to the bar while her husband walked in the other direction and parked himself in the armchair at the other end of the room.

"Relax, Hon. I didn't give her any of the details or anything. I just told her that we were a little tipsy and things got a little out of control and that I thought I might be pregnant."

"I believe primordial was the word you used, Mom," Rory said with a grimace.

"When did this happen?" Luke said.

"When Sookie was in the hospital. That's when I first started having the apple cravings," Lorelai explained.

"What? That long ago?"

"Why are you getting so upset about this? You know I share a lot of stuff with Rory. I always have."

"But this is different! If I'm this kid's father, don't you think that I have a right to be the first one to know?" Emily watched the argument between Luke and Lorelai and took some comfort in the fact that things weren't as perfect between them as Lorelai made them out to be. She looked across the room at her husband with a smug smile who merely scowled at her in return.

"What do you mean, _if _you're this kid's father? You think you're not?"

"I never said that!"

"No, but you implied it. Did _she _get to you?"She said with a gesture toward her mother. "Do you honestly think that I would cheat on you?"

"It wouldn't be the first time I've been cheated on."

"Well, I'm not Nicole! I would _never _do that to you! I would think you'd realize that, especially with our talk today at the house. If I'm willing to give up a house that I love for you and our kid, that should tell you something."

"I thought you liked the new house," Luke said looking hurt.

"I do, but you don't know just how hard it's gonna be for me to leave the house that I raised my daughter in."

"You don't want the house, fine! I'll sell the damn thing to Kirk. He wants it more than you do, anyway!"

"Um…Mrs. Gilmore," the maid said from the doorway timidly as she saw that everyone in the room was glaring at each other.

"What is it, Ellen," Emily snapped causing Ellen to jump back a little.

"Um…dinner's ready."

"Fine, thank you. We'll be along in a moment," she said as she turned her attention to the others in the room. "Shall we go," she said pleasantly.

"I'm not hungry," Luke said still glaring at Lorelai.

"Me either," Rory said sullenly.

"Well, I, for one, am famished," Richard said as he made his way to the dining room.

"And I'm pregnant, so I _have _to eat," Lorelai said with a look of contempt toward her mother wondering what she'd done to get into Luke's head and make him doubt her fidelity to him. She stalked off to the dining room closely followed by Luke who had resigned himself to the fact that this dinner had to go on as planned if they had any hope of getting through to Rory.

Emily and Rory were left in the living room staring at each other. Emily broke the silence, by saying, "Come on, Rory. We're having your favorite, pot roast."

Rory only shrugged in acknowledgement as they both began to walk toward the dining room to join the others. "Grandma, what's going on around here? You said this was supposed to be a celebration for Mom and Luke, but that's not what this feels like," she said as she took her seat across from her mother and Luke. Luke snorted in response as Emily took her seat at the end of table next to him. He'd purposely seated himself in the chair that Lorelai normally occupied in order to keep Emily away from Lorelai.

"You have something to say, Luke," Emily asked coolly.

"Not a thing, Emily," Luke replied just as coolly. "I said everything I wanted to say to you when you were harassing me in my place of business."

"Well, I have something to say," Lorelai said. "I think it's interesting that you lied to my daughter and told her this was a celebration dinner when we both know that you're anything but happy about the situation."

"Well, you're certainly not one to preach to me about honesty with the information I found out about the two of you today," Emily said scathingly as the maid brought the salads in.

"What are you talking about, Emily," Luke questioned.

"I had a lovely little chat with your ex-wife."

"What? Why were you talking to Nicole? _How _were you talking to Nicole? She doesn't even live around here anymore. She moved back to New York after the divorce, so it's not like you could've just bumped into her at the corner market."

"I'm well aware of that. I drove to her law office to talk to her and you wouldn't believe the things she had to say."

"Emily, why would you do such a thing?" Richard asked in shock.

Emily ignored her husband as he'd been doing to her all night and plunged on, "I often wondered why Lorelai kept her relationship with you a secret from me for so long, but after talking with Nicole, I think I understand. She was obviously embarrassed by the fact that your relationship began while you were still married."

"Mom, that is _so _not true," Lorelai protested. "Luke and I never even kissed until after he was divorced and we didn't sleep together until months later. Rory can tell you. I talked to her about the possibility of dating Luke after I went to his sister's wedding with him, which was when he was already single again." Lorelai glanced across the table at her daughter looking for support.

"I don't know, Mom. The timing of things is awfully coincidental. I mean, you and Luke were pretty close immediately after his divorce and everyone in town always knew that you were the one he wanted. It's not a stretch to think that you might have had something to do with his divorce and it's not like you're that great at sharing what's going on in your life with me."

Lorelai looked at her daughter unbelievably hurt by her insinuations and retorted, "I'm not the one who likes to break up marriages by sleeping with somebody else's husband. I believe that's your thing."

"What?"Emily said looking in shock at her granddaughter.

"Thanks for bringing that up again, Mom," Rory said angrily. "I thought you were over that."

"Rory, what on earth is she talking about?"Emily asked her.

"Just so you know, Mom," Rory said glaring at her mother. "That was not entirely my fault. They were on the verge of divorce before I ever got involved."

"Who are you trying to kid, Rory," Lorelai said to her daughter. "It was Lindsay finding that letter you wrote to Dean and finding out that you slept with her husband that caused her to throw him out."

"Rory, is this true," Richard asked his granddaughter appalled by the idea that his granddaughter had destroyed someone's marriage.

"They would have gotten divorced anyway," Rory said. "They were much too young to get married in the first place."

"So, that just makes it ok?"Lorelai said.

"Like you have any room to talk, Mom. You were always flirting with Luke when he was married to Nicole."

"I flirted, yes, but I didn't sleep with him."

"That's not what his wife said," Emily challenged. "You know what they say, Lorelai, once a cheater, always a cheater. If he'd cheat on her to be with you, it's only a matter of time until he cheats on you too."

"_Ex_-wife," Luke corrected hotly. "And screw her! She was the one who cheated, not me. And she was constantly accusing me of cheating which I never did! I have _never _been unfaithful to any woman I've ever been with, but Nicole never believed that."

"Why would she accuse you of it if she didn't have some good reason to believe it," Emily asked.

"It's a classic defense mechanism! You know you're doing something wrong, so you accuse someone else of doing it to make yourself feel better! She was cheating so she tried to turn it around on me, like I was the one in the wrong!"

"Nonsense!"

"It's not nonsense, Emily," Richard argued."What he's talking about is called projection. It's when one takes their negative impulses or feelings and projects them on to someone else in order to rationalize their own bad behavior. In this case, Nicole was trying to justify her infidelity by believing that Luke was doing the same."

"Why are you taking his side?"

"Because I've spent some time this week trying to get to know our future son-in-law, while you've done nothing but try to drive a wedge between them and I realize that he's not the type of man to stray." At hearing her grandfather's statement, Rory fixed her grandmother with an icy stare.

"Thank you, Richard," Luke said.

"Grandpa's right," Rory said turning her attention to Luke. "Luke is _not _the type to cheat."

"Oh, but I am? Is that what you're saying," Lorelai asked her daughter defensively.

"I'm just relating what was told to me by his _ex_-wife," Emily said in response to both Richard and Rory.

"Was that before or after you tried to pay Luke to get out of my life," Lorelai questioned her mother with a hostile tone in her voice.

"What?"Rory said in astonishment before turning on her grandmother. "Grandma, tell me you didn't." When Emily remained silent, Rory said, "_Please,_ Grandma, tell me that you didn't stoop so low as to try to bribe Luke to leave Mom."

"Oh, she did," Luke confirmed with a steely glare at his future mother-in-law.

"Well, so what?" Emily said hotly. "Somebody had to step in and do something about this. It's quite obvious that your mother's incapable of making a rational decision when it comes to this man."

"Hello?"Lorelai interjected. "I'm sitting right here."

"Yes, I see you sitting there, Lorelai. I'm not blind, but you obviously are as far as Luke is concerned. Why else would you have thrown morality completely out the window to be with this man while he was still married? If what you were saying earlier is true and Rory did break up a man's marriage it's apparent that she learned that bad behavior from you!"

"For the last time, I didn't sleep with him while he was married! Even if I did, it's not like you're in any position to judge me when you were asking me for dating advice while you and Dad were separated! Where's the morality in that, dating someone else while your husband's living ten feet away in the pool house? Maybe Rory learned that bad behavior from you!"

"Hey, I admitted that I made a mistake sleeping with Dean while he was still married to Lindsay," Rory said in her own defense.

Rory's statement came at the same time that Emily countered Lorelai's attack on her by saying, "The difference is that I never let anything happen between me and Simon unlike whatever you were doing with Luke."

"I didn't _do _anything with Luke when he was married," Lorelai said again. "We were just friends!"

"Who are you trying to kid, Mom?" Rory said. "You and Luke were always more than friends."

"See, even Rory admits it," Emily said. "She's on my side."

"I'm not on your side, Grandma," Rory said rising from her seat and glaring down at her grandmother. "I think you trying to buy Luke off is the lowest thing you could have done, especially since Mom's pregnant!"

"I didn't know she was pregnant at the time. I only found out about it later when Luke let it slip out while he was screaming at me," Emily said she said also rising from her seat with a hostile wave of her hand in Luke's direction.

"That's no excuse, Mom," Lorelai said as she too rose from her seat to level the playing field. "Besides that, even after you knew about the baby, you still tried to split us up! Who does that kind of thing, intentionally tries to keep a man away from his kid?"

"I only did what I thought was best for you and your unborn child. Do you honestly think that he's capable of being a stable role model for an impressionable child with his frequent outbursts of violent temper?"

"Luke doesn't have a violent temper, Grandma," Rory said. "If you'd ever spent any time around him, you'd know that!"

"I only know what I've found out about him from your way-too-friendly neighbors in Stars Hollow," Emily said. "I've got a file in the other room an inch thick on the numerous violent incidents in his past."

"A file, Mom?" Lorelai questioned. "A file? What'd you do, put a PI on his tail?"

"Well, why shouldn't I? I only want to look out for your safety."

"Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower," Lorelai said with a shake of her head.

"Grandma, are you serious?" Rory asked incredulously. "You _actually _hired a PI to keep tabs on Luke?" Ellen, the timid maid stepped into the room and upon hearing the overlapping shouting, stepped right back out again.

"Why are you acting like it's such an insane thing to do," Emily said.

"It _is _insane!"

"No, it's not! How is it insane to want to look out for the future of your child? Maybe if your mother had done the same with you, you wouldn't have given up your innocence to a married man!"

"Mom, you are completely cracked," Lorelai shouted. "I don't need to hire a PI to follow my daughter around!"

"That's enough," Luke said as he jumped from his seat and towered over all three women finally having had enough of the bickering. "What's really insane are you Gilmore women! And I mean all three of you! That includes you, Emily," he said with a pointed look toward her before turning to Lorelai and saying to her, "You have been upset and crying all week long because you haven't heard from your daughter and when you finally do get a message from her, you stubbornly refuse to call her back, even though I've told you repeatedly that the two of you should be talking instead of giving each other the cold shoulder!" He then turned back to Emily and said, "And you have been running around Stars Hollow like a crazy person, trying to dig up whatever dirt you can find on me, in the hopes that it will turn the woman I love against me and when that didn't work, you tried to make me doubt her by suggesting the baby she's carrying isn't mine when I know without a doubt that it is! I know you hate me and the fact that I'm the reason that Lorelai's pregnant, but you've been so hell-bent on destroying our relationship that you never once stopped to consider that this kid is your grandchild!"

"So, _now _you believe this kid is yours?" Lorelai said. "You didn't seem so convinced of it in there."

"I never even suggested that it wasn't. You just took it that way. The only thing that I was saying is that I should have been the first one to know that you thought you were pregnant, not Rory!"

"I already told you that I was afraid of how you'd react. We hadn't been back together that long and I thought it might be too soon for us to think about having a kid together! We already went through this and you accepted that!"

"That was before I knew that Rory knew about it before me!"

"So, Mom's not allowed to tell me stuff about your relationship," Rory asked sullenly. "Is that why I had to find out about your engagement and the baby and the house from my grandmother?"

"Maybe if you'd picked up the phone and called your mother at least once in the last week you'd have known what's been going on in our lives. She wanted to share all of this with you herself, but just like your mother and your grandmother, you're too damn stubborn! How long would it have taken you to just once pick up the phone and say, 'Hey, Mom, what's going on in your life?'"

"As you already pointed out, I _did _call and Mom ignored me!"

"Yeah, you called her, after she spent damn near a week crying over you and the fact that you went running to your grandparents and turned your back on her. You should have called her long before then!"

"Like I told her in my messages, I lost my cell phone and I called her as soon as I found it!"

"That's it! You lost your cell phone? That's your excuse? With all the money your grandmother has, I know she's got a phone here in this mausoleum she calls a home that you could have used to call your mother if you'd really wanted to!"

"Mausoleum?"Emily questioned. "I suppose it would seem that way to you, with that dump of a house you just bought. A house that is in no way suitable for my unborn grandchild!"

Richard rose from his seat and glared across the table at his wife and said, "Emily, shut up!"

"How dare you speak to me like that after the way you've been behaving lately," she replied venomously.

"I mean it, Emily! Not another word until Luke has finished what he has to say," Richard said sternly refusing to back down.

"Thank you," Luke said as he turned back to Rory who was standing there sullenly with her arms folded across her chest. "As for you, I can't even begin to tell you how angry I've been with you this last week! Do you have any idea the hell you've been putting your mother through! She has been worried sick about you and the choices you're making with your life and you couldn't even be bothered to call her even one time to let her know whether you were alive or dead, happy or sad. I've had to endure a week of seeing the woman I love heartbroken by the person who means the most to her in the world, all because you're too wrapped up in your new high society world to even take the time to find out what's going on in your Mom's life! It's been tearing her apart and you don't even care that you've hurt her! And what the hell is going on with you, stealing a yacht, dropping out of Yale, and moving in with your grandparents? This isn't you!" The maid again stepped shyly into the room to once again attempt to let the group know that the entrée was ready to be served, but after hearing Luke's rant to Rory, she again walked back to the kitchen to hide.

"Stop it, Luke!" Rory cried. "Get off my ass! You're not my father! I've got a father and it's not you! Just because you knocked my mother up, that doesn't _make _you my father, so why don't you worry about taking care of your own kid and leave me alone!" Rory regretted the words almost as soon as they'd come out of her mouth when she saw the pained look on Luke's face. He couldn't have looked more stunned if she'd slapped him while Emily looked at Luke smugly at her granddaughter's outburst.

"Rory!"Lorelai said in shock at her daughter's scathing words to the man who loved her as if she were his own daughter. "How can you say something like that to him after all he's done for you over the years?"

"I've got this, Lorelai," he said to her before turning back to his future step-daughter. "I'm well aware of the fact that I'm not your father and you're damn lucky that I'm not! If I were, I would've driven up here the night you moved into the pool house, dragged you out your bed and forced to look at what a mess you've made and how much you've been hurting your mother! As for your worthless father, I don't see him around anywhere! Where's he at while you're on the verge of throwing your life away! Does he even know that you were arrested or that you dropped out of school? Would he even care if he did? Would he be here like I am to try to talk some sense into you before it's too late or would he just pat you on the back and say that it's ok for you to give up like he's been doing for years?"

"So, is that what this dinner is supposed to be?" Rory asked. "Some kind of intervention?" In case you've forgotten, Luke, I'm an adult!"

"Then start acting like it! Adults don't run away just because somebody criticizes them. I know you hate what that rich asshole said to you, but you can't let him get to you so much that you throw away your whole future!"

"He's right, Hon," Lorelai said.

"What would either of you know about it," Rory countered vehemently then said to Luke, "You just got a rave review from _The New York Times_ right after Mom got a rave review from _American Travel_! You don't know what it's like to have someone tell you you're not good enough!"

"How can you say that, Rory?" Lorelai said to her daughter. "All my life, my own mother has told me that I'm not good enough, that I don't measure up to her insanely high standards and she's been telling both me and Luke non-stop for three days that he's not good enough for me so I think we know a little something about it!"

"God, Mom, you're such a hypocrite! You've done nothing but bitch for years about how Grandma interferes in your life and won't support your life choices, but here you are, doing the same to me! Why can't you support me on this?"

"Because Luke's right. This isn't you!"

"How would you know anymore? You've been so wrapped up in your life with Luke that you haven't paid a bit of attention to what's going on with me! All you've been doing is making plans to get me out of your life!"

"No, I haven't! Were you not listening to Luke just now? I have been a complete wreck the last week wondering what's going on with you!"

"If you were so worried, then why are you selling my childhood home the second I'm not in it anymore? Were you even planning on telling me about that or were just gonna wait until you moved to send me a change of address card?"

"Of course I was going to tell you about it! I wouldn't sell that house without talking to you about it first! That's your house too, but you have to understand that Luke and I are having a kid together and down the road we might want more kids. The old house just isn't big enough!"

"So, you just let Luke buy you a new house for your new family right after you tell me that I can't come home? Do you have any idea how much that hurt me? That I'm not included in your new family now that you're having a baby with a man you actually love? Are you able to replace me that easily?"

"Rory, this isn't about replacing you," Luke said before Lorelai could respond. "You're one of the reasons that I bought that big house. I was just showing your mom today the huge library this place has that I thought would be perfect for you. You'd have a place for all your books to have a permanent home, a place where you could read and study to your heart's content, something that you used to love to do, but with you dropping out of school, who knows if you'd even want it now?"

"You thought of me when you bought that house?"Rory said softly hanging her head slightly at the harsh words she'd said to him earlier.

"Yeah, I did. I even had a bedroom picked out for you and an Idea about where to put up all your Yale stuff that you've got plastered all over your walls. I'd be stupid not to realize that you and your mom come as a package deal. That if we're going to have any kind of real family life, you have to be included in it. I know that you're upset about this baby, but you don't have to be. We're not trying to replace you. I don't see what you can't focus on the joy of the situation. I mean, you're gonna be this kid's big sister."

"Half-sister," Emily corrected scornfully.

"Grandma, shut up," Rory said with a look of contempt at her grandmother who opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she saw the stern glare coming from her husband at the other end of the table.

"Where's all this coming from, Kid?" Luke said. "Did you honestly think that just because we're having a kid together that we wouldn't want you around anymore?"

"I don't know what I thought. Grandma said…"her voice trailed off as she realized how stupid she'd been to let her grandmother get into her head and make her doubt her mother's love for her.

"Grandma said?" Lorelai repeated. "That explains it all." Lorelai fixed her mother with an icy glare and said, "You've really had a busy week, haven't you? Telling me that I'm throwing my life away by marrying the man I love, talking to my friends and neighbors trying to dig up dirt on my fiancé, hiring a PI, talking to Nicole, and telling my daughter I don't want her around anymore? What, were you having a slow week at the DAR and you had to have something else to entertain yourself with?"

"You think I've been doing all this strictly for my own amusement," Emily asked her incredulously.

"Haven't you? I know nothing gives you greater pleasure than to see me miserable while you're happy."

"Lorelai, that's not true," Emily began until she caught a glimpse of the maid once again trying to enter the room. "Oh, for God's sake, Ellen, get in or get out! Stop hovering in the damn doorway!" Luke stared at Emily thrown by the way she talked to her employee. While he was a little gruff at work from time to time, he'd never been that cold.

"I…I…I…" the soft-spoken maid stammered.

"Well, spit it out! I'm not getting any younger here," Emily snapped impatiently.

"I…Um…I was just wondering if you were done with your salads so I could bring out the main course," she said softly.

"Oh, yes. You can clear these things," she said indicating the salad plates. The maid immediately began to clear the table, not wanting to incur Emily's ire again.

"Now that we're all a little calmer, why don't we all sit back down and try to enjoy the remainder of our dinner," Richard suggested as he resumed his seat.

"Good plan, Dad," Lorelai said while sitting back down. "Hon," she said to Luke while tugging on his arm to try to get him to sit.

"Yeah," he said taking his seat next to Lorelai while still gaping at Emily and her harsh treatment of her maid.

Rory and Emily soon followed suit. As Emily took her seat she said, "Well, she's going to be fired." When Luke muttered something under his breath she said to him waspishly,"You know that's very rude. If you have something to say, just say it! It's not as if you've held back at all this week."

"Oh, believe me, I've held back," he said trying to keep his temper in check. "I haven't said half the things I've wanted to say to you."

"Well, then just say whatever it is you're thinking, now," she said as Ellen left the room arms laden with half-empty salad plates.

"I'm just thinking that the way you spoke to her, that poor girl is going to quit before you have a chance to fire her."

"Are you questioning the way I run my household? How is that any of your business?"

"It's not," he said with a shrug. "I'm just saying that if I treated my employees like you just treated her, my business would go belly up faster than you can say chapter eleven. There's no way that I could run that place by myself."

"Speaking of which, Luke," Richard began before his wife could make another cutting remark, "You never did answer me earlier when I asked about the diner. How are things going there?" As he asked the question, the maid began to bring in dinner plates.

"Sorry about that. I think we all got a little sidetracked," he said with a withering look directed toward Emily before turning back to Richard and answering, "Things are about the same as when you left this morning."

"Good, glad to hear it," Richard said with a smile as Ellen sat his plate in front of him. "I just hope _this _meal is as good as the one I had in your restaurant," he added with a bitter glare at Emily.

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean? You act like we never have a decent meal here," Emily said coolly stung by the fact that her husband had the nerve to compare the carefully planned out meals served in their home to whatever slop Luke served in his greasy diner.

Richard once again ignored his wife and turned his attention back to Luke and said, "I must say that the _Times _critic was quite right in his assessment of the special omelet. You must give me the recipe so that I can pass it on to our cook."

"Now, this is getting ridiculous," Emily scoffed.

Lorelai sat quietly smiling at the distress evident on her mother's face as Luke continued his conversation with her father as if she hadn't spoken. "I appreciate the compliment, Richard, but I don't share my recipes with anyone. Trade secret," he said with a grin.

"Oh, come now, Luke. I'm not a professional rival like Sookie," Richard replied with a smile as he recalled the very heated argument Luke had had with her in the diner.

"How is Sookie a rival to Luke?"Emily questioned. "Sookie is a highly skilled, highly trained chef, while Luke is nothing more than a burger flipper. How is that even close to the same thing?"

"Stop it, Grandma," Rory demanded. "You have no idea what you're talking about! Luke may not have the training that Sookie does, but he's really good at what he does! Didn't you see the review in _The Times_? That critic had nothing but good things to say about Luke's cooking both at the inn and the diner."

"Yes, I read the review; a review that Luke himself admits was a fluke! As I told your mother that only happened because he happened to be in the right place at the right time!"

"Well, so what? Who cares how it happened? The fact is that it did happen and you should be happy that Mom has someone in her life who takes such pride in his work! I would've thought that that article would've allowed you to gain some respect for him and how hard he works, but you're too much of a damn snob to see just how good he is!"

"Rory!"Emily said in shock at her granddaughter's brittle tone of voice. "You will _not _speak to me that way after all I've done for you!"

"I'll speak to you anyway that I like! You have no right to treat Luke like you have been when he's been the only real father-figure I've ever known!"

"Weren't you just screaming at him a moment ago about how he's not your father," Emily pointed out icily.

"I was out of line," Rory admitted with an apologetic glance toward Luke who simply nodded in return letting her know that she was forgiven. "And so are you," she said as she turned back toward her grandmother. "I think you need to re-read that review objectively and really take in what it says! You and I both know that if it were written about anyone else but Luke you'd be breaking every traffic law known to mankind to get to _Luke's_ to sample his food, just so you could brag to all your friends that you were there!"

"She's got a point, Emily," Richard said finally breaking the silent treatment he'd been giving his wife. "Perhaps you should re-read the article and give it's fair due. I've been at _Luke's_ twice this week and both times it's been completely packed." He turned back to Luke and said, "While we're on the subject, Luke, have you given anymore thought to the conversation we had at the golf course?"

"Dad," Lorelai said in a weary tone knowing what was coming.

"Lorelai, I'm talking to Luke," Richard said sternly. "Well, Luke?"

"To be honest, I really haven't."

"Why not? Now would be the perfect time to think about expanding your business. Strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. I'd be more than happy to make another call to Herb Smith on your behalf."

"I appreciate the thought, Richard, but I'm not at all interested in franchising my diner."

"I don't understand that," Richard said. "Are you afraid of failing? You've obviously got the skills necessary to make it a success, if that's what's holding you back."

"It's not," Luke said. "It's just that I like my business the way it is. I like interacting with my regular customers every day. I like that, as crazy as they are, my home town friends and neighbors continue to support my business and keep it running successfully."

"But think about how much more successful you could be if you branched out a little."

"The thing is, I don't think that I would be successful with any other location because my heart wouldn't be in it. Opening the diner was never about the money to me. I opened the diner where I did because that was my dad's building. He poured his heart and soul into the hardware store that used to be there. Now, I never had the love for the hardware business that he did, but I love that building and what it represents. It's my family legacy, which I know is small compared to yours, but it means something to me. I want to someday pass it on to our kids," he said with a meaningful look at Lorelai before he continued. "My dad left that building solely to me and not my sister because he knew that I'd love it the way that he did. That's why I kept so much of it just the way my dad left it. Any other place just wouldn't be the same."

"You see, Richard, it's just like I told you," Emily said snarkily. "This man has no ambition whatsoever."

"Stop it, Mother," Lorelai snapped. "I mean it! I'm sick of you and your snide comments about Luke and his so-called lack of ambition! What's _your _great ambition in life, world's biggest bitch?"

"Lorelai! How dare you come into my home and attack me like this!"

"You mean, like you've been doing to me all week? You came to _my _home, attacked me, attacked my fiancée, and tried numerous times to split us up! You're lucky I even came here tonight!"

"Lucky? Lucky that my only daughter is calling me names in my own home?"

"I didn't even want to be in your home! I hate it here! I've always hated it here! The only reason I even came here tonight was because of Rory, so I could have one more chance to stop her from throwing her life away!"

"Look who's talking about throwing her life away! You're shacked up with a man who couldn't care less about providing a stable financial future for you and your unborn child!"

"Knock it off, both of you," Luke said crossly. "What's wrong with you? What kind of mother and daughter are you that you talk to each other that way?" He turned to Emily and said, "Lorelai's right. She _didn't _want to come here until I talked her into it. The only reason that we came here tonight was for Rory to try to get her to change her mind about leaving school."

"You guys are unbelievable," Rory said. "Have either one of you stopped to think about what I want in all of this?"

"I know what you used to want, "Luke said. "You've talked about nothing but being a reporter since you were a little kid. I remember you running around when you were ten interviewing everybody in town for that little Stars Hollow newsletter you wrote. You've been dreaming about it for as long as I've known you, but if you want to make that happen, dropping out of school is not the way to go."

"I don't want that anymore," Rory said unconvincingly.

"I don't believe that. I don't think that dream will ever die."

"Well, it doesn't matter if I still want it or not, that dream is gone!"

"Who says it is? That jackass who told you that you weren't good enough? Since when do you care about what anyone else thinks of you?"

"Since he's the biggest newspaper guy in the country," Rory said.

"Is that really the reason or is it because you're dating his son and his snotty relatives made it clear that they don't want you marrying into their family?"

"You don't get it, Luke," she said not wanting to admit that he was right.

"Yes, I do. Look how much grief I've had to put up with from your grandmother telling me that I'm not good enough to marry into _your _family? Do you think I let that stop me from going after what I want?"

"It's not the same. Mitchum Huntzberger is _the _authority on what makes a good reporter."

"What makes him the authority? The man hasn't written anything of his own in ten years! I looked it up! All he does now is buy up newspapers where the only thing he does is show up once in a while to bark orders at people and scare the staff half to death! When he was running you down, did you even bother to ask what the people who actually _run _that paper on a daily basis thought of your work?"

"No," Rory said. "But he's their boss!"

"So what? Does that mean he can't be wrong? You may not have asked what those other people thought, but I did!" He walked to the living room and retrieved the file he'd brought with him and slammed it on the table next to her. "In that folder are more than a dozen different letters of recommendation written by the people you worked with in Stamford. You were just yelling at your grandmother about reading that review of my work, now maybe you should read the reviews of your own!"

Rory picked up the folder and started thumbing through the papers within it while Luke returned to his seat across from her. She looked up and him and asked, "How did you get this?"

"It wasn't that hard. I just drove up there and talked to people. Every one of them was more than willing to share their opinions on you and on the dictator who made you feel like you're not good enough!"

"Dictator?"She said her eyes widening.

"Their words, not mine. You wouldn't believe how many of them can't stand him. The editor called him Herr Huntzberger and one girl there even said that he wouldn't know good writing if it bit him in the ass and that all he cares about is that the paper starts making more money."

Lorelai looked at Luke adoringly and said, "You did all this for Rory?"

"Yeah, somebody had to," he said nonchalantly as he resumed eating. "All of the people I talked to up there had nothing but compliments for Rory, but not a single one of them could muster up a single nice thing to say about their boss."

"That's our friend you're talking about," Emily said. "We've been friends with the Huntzbergers for years." She couldn't believe Luke's nerve insulting someone from their world when he was more than happy to be nothing more than a small-town diner owner with his small-town friends.

"He's your friend? You've got a funny way of looking at friendship if you think that anyone who was a true friend to you would hurt your granddaughter like this. To me, a friend is someone who's got your back, who's there for you no matter what. How many of your so-called friends would actually be there for you when the chips are down? Were any of them there for you when you and Richard were separated, trying to help you get through it? I don't think so. I seem to remember that Lorelai was the one you kept calling when that was going on. _Our _friends, on the other hand, were there for both of us when we broke up and were there for us again when we got back together and are being so supportive that they've planned this big engagement party for us. They were there for me when my dad died, they were there for me when I opened the diner, when Lorelai opened the inn, they're the kind of friends that you can be proud to have on your side. _Your _friend let his family attack Rory and make her feel like she wasn't good enough for Logan, and then turned around and gave her that internship just so he'd have one more opportunity to drag her down. Is that what you honestly think a friend is for?"

Emily glanced at Luke is silence as she realized that what Rory and Lorelai had said was true about his feelings for Rory. He was clearly taking it personally that Mitchum had criticized Rory. While she thought it was nice that he cared for Rory that much, she still didn't see him as being a suitable husband for Lorelai. She watched him as he ate and noticed that he hadn't touched his meat and was merely picking around it with his fork to get to the vegetables. She couldn't resist getting in another swipe at him. "What's the matter, Luke? Is the roast too dry for you? I know it's not as greasy as your burgers, but not all of us like our beef that way."

Lorelai slammed her fork down in irritation and said, "That's enough, Mother! I don't want to hear one more of your scathing comments about Luke! For you information, the reason that Luke hasn't touched the roast is because he doesn't eat red meat, something you would have known if you'd ever taken even five minutes to get to know him a little."

"Isn't that a little strange for someone who makes his living by serving burgers?"She asked before turning to Luke and asking him, "Is there some particular reason you don't eat red meat? Do you have some sort of health condition that prevents it?"

"No, I'm perfectly healthy," Luke said. "And I plan to stay that way. That's why I don't eat red meat, but I'm not about to run a restaurant like mine and not serve it to the people who want it. My customers want burgers, I give them burgers. It's not up to me to tell anyone else how to live, just because it's not my personal preference!"

"Why do you have to be like that," Lorelai asked her mother.

"Like what, Lorelai?"

"Suggesting that the only reason he doesn't eat red meat is because he's unhealthy."

"It's a perfectly logical assumption, given the fact that both of his parents died young. Have you even thought about the fact that there could be some health issue that he may have inherited from his parents that could be passed on to your child, That you could be exposing your unborn child to all kinds of potential health risks by choosing this man to father your children?"

"That's what this really boils down to, isn't it? My choices. This isn't about Luke, it's about me. You just can't ever accept the decisions that I make with my life if they don't fit in with your plans for me. When are you going to realize that I'm not going to live my life the way you want me to if it's not something that's going to make me happy?"

"I can see that you're positively glowing with happiness," Emily said sarcastically.

"I _am _happy. You just never see me happy because all you do is look down your nose at me and question my life choices. You're the one who makes me unhappy, not Luke. You can't see that I am with an amazing guy who would do anything in the world to make me happy, who loves me with all his heart, who loves my kid as if she were his and who's more than willing to do whatever it takes to make her happy too! All you care about is that he doesn't measure up to your standards, just like I don't! We all know that I'm nothing but a big disappointment to you, but I can't bring myself to care anymore! I'm tired of trying to win your approval! I know that I'll never be the daughter you want me to be! You're repulsed by the idea that I want more children and with a man I love and I don't get that! Why is it so wrong in your eyes that I want a family! Is it because you and Dad only had me?"

"Lorelai…"Richard said in a warning tone, not liking where this conversation was heading.

"No, Dad, I really want to know," Lorelai said before turning back to her mother." Why is it that I'm an only child? I figured once you figured out what a let-down I was, you'd want to have another kid so you'd have shot at getting the daughter you really wanted! You were still young enough then, so why didn't you?"

"Lorelai, that's enough," Richard snapped at seeing the pained look on Emily's face that his daughter was oblivious to in her anger.

Lorelai ignored her father and pressed on,"Come on, Mom. What was it? Were you too afraid you'd screw up your perfect figure if you got pregnant again?"

"Excuse me," Emily choked out as she threw her napkin into her plate and hurried from the room before her daughter could see the tears that she was holding back at her harsh words.

"That was completely uncalled for, Lorelai," Richard said severely. "Do you have any idea how much you just hurt your mother?" He was angry with Emily, but he knew that Lorelai's words would have cut her deeply since Emily had been heartbroken that they'd been unable to have more children after their daughter was born.

"What about the way that she's been hurting me? Do you have any idea what she's done to me this week or just how much she's hurt me? Don't you care about that?"

"Of course I care, but that doesn't give you the right to purposely hurt her in return."

Emily stood in the bathroom leaning against the door for support as she let her tears fall at the bitter memories her daughter's cruel words had brought up. She let her body slowly slide down the length of the door as her sadness overcame her. She could hear the faint sounds of her husband and daughter arguing, but their words didn't really register as she kept replaying her daughter's vicious taunts over and over again in her mind. How could Lorelai have thought that about her? That she would be so shallow as to care about her figure when she'd wanted nothing more that to be able to give her husband the family he'd desired. She remembered how elated she'd been four months into her marriage to discover that she was pregnant, only to be crushed when she'd lost the baby a mere month later.

It had taken almost a year for them to conceive again. When she learned that she was pregnant again, she decided to cut down on her activities in order to ensure a successful pregnancy the second time around, but it hadn't made a difference. The second baby hadn't survived the first trimester either. She'd been devastated at the second loss and to make matters worse, her mother-in-law had made her feel like a failure as a wife because she seemed to be unable to give her husband a child. The emotional pain had taken its toll. She'd even told Richard after the loss of their second child that perhaps he'd have been better off marrying a woman who wasn't reproductively faulty. She'd told him then that she didn't have it in her to try anymore. She couldn't bear the thought of disappointing him again. He'd been supportive, but she knew that their big empty house was mocking him the same way it did her. He'd bought the house for them specifically with the idea in mind of filling it with children. It was all they'd talked about for many months leading up their wedding day when he'd shown her the house and they'd begun making plans for their future, much like her daughter was doing with Luke now. Lorelai had no idea how lucky she was. She had to admit to herself that she was a little envious of her daughter. Why was it so easy for her daughter to conceive when it had been so hard for her? She'd gotten pregnant at fifteen and she gathered from the conversation they'd had in her kitchen the night she and Richard had gone there unexpectedly that she and Luke had only been reckless about taking precautions that one time and she'd gotten pregnant again when she wasn't even trying.

She couldn't understand why life was so cruel sometimes. She recalled vividly her belief that she and Richard weren't meant to have children after her second pregnancy had ended as abruptly as the first. She was determined that she wasn't going to put them through that again. It wasn't until her twenty-fifth birthday party in early August of 1967 when she and Richard had both had a little too much to drink that she'd let her guard down again. She hadn't even thought about the idea of trying again at the time. Lorelai's conception had been a complete surprise to her. They had decided to wait a while to tell anyone that she was expecting again until they were sure that they were going to be successful this time. Upon learning the news, she'd immediately consulted every reputable doctor she could find in order to determine the best course of action to ensure that her child would make it this time. She had followed their advice to the letter, unwilling to let her husband down again.

All her effort had paid off just two months after their third wedding anniversary when she held her baby daughter in her arms for the very first time. She closed her eyes and recalled how happy she'd been that day in spite of the trouble she'd had bringing Lorelai into the world. Her happiness was short-lived though as Richard's beloved Trix brutally pointed out the fact that the child she'd so longed for was a daughter and not a son who could carry on the Gilmore name. She was dealt an even crueler blow when the doctor informed her that more children weren't possible. It was then that Emily had decided to name her daughter Lorelai as a peace offering. Richard had been tickled by the idea and it seemed to appease her overly critical mother-in-law that at least her first name would be carried on in their daughter. She had then proceeded to give her daughter whatever she desired and more, knowing that she was the only child she would ever have. She spared no expense; nothing was too good for her only child. It was all thrown back in her face though on that long ago day when she discovered that she was going to be a grandmother way too young.

She'd been heartbroken to discover on Lorelai's sixteenth birthday that her daughter had so easily accomplished what she'd struggled to do for so long. While she was disappointed in Lorelai, she tried to see it as a good thing. Maybe this was what fate had intended for her, to help her rear her grandchild since Lorelai was still a child herself and wouldn't be able to properly care for her child. She'd thought of it as her second chance. She had tried desperately to get her daughter to do the right thing and marry Christopher so that her child would have both mother and father around. She'd had the whole thing planned out in her mind; that they would marry and live with her and Richard so that both young people could continue with their education. While Lorelai's pregnancy was a setback in her plans for her daughter, she saw no reason why, with her help, she couldn't still graduate from high school and go on to Yale as planned. She was more than willing to look after her grandchild while Lorelai went to school, but her stubborn daughter would have none of it. She flat out refused to marry Christopher and dropped out of school. Emily had watched her daughter like a hawk throughout her pregnancy, looking for any signs that she might suffer the same fate that she had. She strictly controlled her daughter's diet and her activities to be sure that her grandchild would be born healthy, but it had all been unnecessary. Lorelai had a perfectly normal pregnancy with no complications whatsoever and delivered a healthy baby girl who she then named after herself and her grandmother. Christopher showed up at the hospital several hours after Rory had been born and she'd tried once again to talk her daughter into marrying the young man, but she'd refused again and Christopher had left without ever even holding his newborn daughter.

Emily thought of that day Christopher walked away from his child as she recalled Luke's cold words at the dinner table about how worthless Christopher had been as a father to Rory. She knew that he was right. Christopher hadn't been a proper father to Rory, but she still didn't feel that Luke would be a proper step-father for her either. She'd often wondered if Christopher would have been a better father if Lorelai had married him when they were young. She sighed as she thought of how determined her daughter was to marry Luke now that she was carrying his child and wondered what made the difference. The questions kept running through her mind. Why was she so willing to marry the man who'd gotten her pregnant this time when she wasn't then? What was it that Luke had that Christopher didn't? Why did he have such a hold her daughter's heart? Had Luke told her the truth the other day? Had Lorelai really proposed to him? If so, why? Had his ex-wife told the truth? Had Lorelai really broken up their marriage or was Nicole just bitter about the divorce? If she had broken up his marriage, why had she waited until he was married to make her move? Had it really taken her seeing him married to someone else that had made her own up to her feelings for him? Why hadn't Lorelai seen like she had at Rory's sixteenth birthday party that she could have had Luke anytime she wanted him? Why hadn't she seen it when Luke had driven her to the hospital? Or when he'd helped her find Rory's lost chick? Or when she had helped him at the diner after his uncle had passed away? Or when he was there at Rory's high school graduation? Emily couldn't understand it at all. Everyone she'd talked to in Stars Hollow had told her about how Luke had loved Lorelai for years, yet her daughter had been oblivious to his feelings for her. She sighed again as she tried to resign herself to the fact that her daughter was going to marry Luke no matter what she thought of it. She knew she had to accept it, but she just couldn't. She worried that the marriage wouldn't last. She felt that Lorelai was clinging to this idea of marrying Luke due to the fact that it was coming about after so many years of missed opportunities between the two of them. She strongly felt that once the reality of marriage hit her daughter she'd realize that all the fantasies she'd built up for years about being with Luke would come crashing down once she came to see that the reality was nothing like the fantasy. While she had no doubt that her daughter cared deeply for Luke she knew that marriage was hard and that Lorelai had no idea what she was in for and she couldn't bear the thought of seeing her daughter heartbroken as she was sure to be by staying with Luke. Her reverie was broken by a knocking on the door and the sound of her daughter's voice.

"Mom, are you in there?"Lorelai called.

Emily peeled herself off of the bathroom floor standing on shaky legs as she called back in a voice much cooler than she felt, "I'll be right out." She walked to the mirror as she wiped the tears away and took a washcloth to wipe away the smudged mascara from her face refusing to let her daughter see how much she'd hurt her. When she thought she was decently presentable she opened the door and said, "What is it you want, Lorelai?"

"You've been gone a while. I just wanted to make sure you were ok," she said guiltily as she took in her mother's slightly disheveled appearance and her swollen eyes. It was obvious that she'd been crying. She hung her head slightly as she thought of her father berating her for hurting her mother.

"I'm perfectly fine, Lorelai," Emily lied determined not to let her vulnerability show as she brushed past her daughter heading back toward the dining room.

"You kind of don't look like it," Lorelai said as she pursued her mother. "You look like a mess right now, the puffy eyes, the rumpled dress…"

Emily whipped around to face her daughter as they reached the doorway to the dining room. "Look who's talking," she said icily indicating her daughter's appearance and her revealing dress. "Is that how you think it's appropriate to dress for a family dinner?"

"What's wrong with the way I'm dressed?"

"Nothing, if you're Samantha Jones," Emily said coolly knowing that her daughter would get the reference.

"Ok, first of all, how do you even know who Samantha Jones is? And second, why do you care what I wear? You've already got it set in your mind that I'm just as big a whore as she is, so what difference does it make?"

"You think I'm so out of touch, don't you? Well, it might surprise you to learn that I'm not so out of touch as you think I am. Some of the girls in the DAR love that show and talk about it non-stop. As for what you wear, that dress is not appropriate for an engaged woman to be running around in. If you're in a committed relationship, as you say you are, then you shouldn't be dressing like you're trying to attract a man."

"I wear what I want when I want," Lorelai said hotly.

"Is that really what _you_ want to wear or is that just how Luke likes you to dress," she spat at her daughter unable to resist getting in another jibe at Luke.

"Leave Luke out of this," Lorelai shouted at her mother. "I wore this dress because _I _wanted to."

"Well, any decent man wouldn't let the mother of his child parade around looking like she belongs on a street corner!"

"That is it! I've had enough," Lorelai said as she stormed into the dining room. "Luke, Come on, let's go. Take me home. I can't stand being here for another minute!"

"What about Rory?" He asked in concern as he rose for his chair and walked to the doorway where the two older Gilmore women were still standing shooting frigid looks at each other. While he was not thrilled about the idea of putting up with more of Emily's hostility he didn't feel that they'd had enough time to really accomplish what they'd meant to with Rory.

"As she pointed out earlier she's an adult. She can make her own choices, though why she'd want to stay here with a woman like that is beyond me," she said as glared at her daughter then her mother.

"Lorelai, calm down. Just think about this for a minute. We still haven't finished talking about this."

"No, Luke! I want to go home! I knew it was a mistake to come here, but I let you talk me into it anyway. Now, I'm going! If you don't want to come with me, fine! You can stay here and be insulted the rest of the night, but I'm not staying for any more abuse! I'll call a cab if I have to since you won't let me drive your truck!"

"He won't let you drive his truck?"Emily asked in surprise. "What, is he afraid you'll wreck it? It's not like you'd be able to tell with as beat up as it is already," she added with a sneer.

"No, I'm not afraid she'll wreck it," Luke replied. "The last time she drove my truck, she nearly destroyed the transmission since she doesn't know how to drive a stick!"

"That's funny. I don't recall you having any trouble with the way I 'drive a stick' this afternoon when we were on the floor of the new house," she said suggestively with a defiant stare at her mother.

"Oh My God," Emily cried with revulsion.

"Jesus Christ, Lorelai," Luke said impatiently. "Would you knock that off? That was a private thing between just you and me! Why do you have to say crap like that in front of your mother?"

"What difference does it make? She already thinks I'm nothing more than a whore! She thinks I purposely set out to break up your marriage even though you and I both know it's not true! I was with Jason at the time, but she doesn't seem to remember that."

"Who cares what she thinks? She's already got it set in her mind that I'm not good enough for you and has done everything in her power to try to get between us and it hasn't worked. We're still together, aren't we? Isn't that what matters? We know what we have together even if she doesn't," he said with a nod of his head at her dress knowing she would get it.

"Yeah, we do," she said with a slight smile. "But can we please just go. I don't wanna be here anymore."

"OK, we'll go. Just try to calm down," he said quietly trying to soothe her as the doctor had told them today that she needed to avoid unnecessary stress.

"I'll calm down once we get out of here," she said with another icy glare at her mother.

Emily called out to the maid, "Ellen, get their coats."

"That's it?" Lorelai said. "You're not going to try to talk me into staying?"

"Why should I? You obviously don't want to be here, so by all means go. I'm not one for holding someone here against their will." The truth was she wanted her daughter to stay but she didn't want to spend another second in the same room with Luke after hearing what he'd be up to with her daughter earlier in the day. She glared at him disgustedly while she waited for her timid maid to bring the coats.

"Mom, wait," Rory said as she left her seat while the maid brought Luke and Lorelai their jackets. "Please don't go. Not like this," she pleaded.

"Sorry, Kid. I'm not staying here," she said as she put her jacket on.

"But…"

"No buts, Rory. You made your choice and I'm making mine! If you want to live your life like this, I'm not going to try to stop you, but I made the choice when you were a baby that I wasn't going to! You can do whatever you want to do! If you wanna live like a princess go right ahead, but I just remember who the queen is," she said with a gesture at Emily. "Now, I'm going home to Stars Hollow where I belong and I won't be setting foot in this house ever again!" Without another word, she stalked toward the front door with Luke trailing helplessly behind her flashing an apologetic look at Richard who'd remained silent throughout the whole exchange.

As soon as they were gone, Rory turned on her grandmother," How could you do that? How could you say something like that to her?"

"Don't you speak to me in that tone of voice!"Emily shouted back.

"It's no less than you deserve, Grandma! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're acting just like your mother! This is her attitude coming out in you and I don't like it one bit!"

"Deal with it! I don't know what to even think of you right now! All this past week, I thought you were trying to help me, but now I see that you only took me in to get back at Mom! You don't care about what happens to me! You're just happy that you got one over on her!"

"That's not true! I do care what happens to you! I care what happens to your mother too, but she's too stubborn to see that I only want what's best for her!"

"Do you really think that trying to take away the man she loves is what's best for her?"

"All right, stop it, both of you," Richard said finally stepping in. "This is ridiculous! We're supposed to be a family! Luke was right! All three of you are too damn stubborn! I've sat by and done nothing for far too long while you trade barbs with one another and I've had enough! I won't put up with this childish behavior for one more minute! Now, Rory, you owe your grandmother an apology for the way you spoke to her!"

"No, I won't apologize! I'm tired of her attacking Mom and Luke!"

"I understand that, Rory, but that's their battle to fight. Let them deal with it, please."

"Fine," she said. "Sorry, Grandma," she said grudgingly.

"That was heartfelt," Emily said sarcastically. "I can tell you _really _meant that."

"That's all I can manage. Sorry if it doesn't come up to your standards," Rory said coolly. "I'm too angry at you right now. I have to get out of here." She walked back to her seat, picked up the file Luke had brought her and left to return to the pool house.

"Thank you for trying," Emily said grateful that in spite of their argument he'd defended her to their granddaughter.

"Don't thank me yet, Emily! I'm still angry with you myself! You had no right to do what you did tonight! What were you thinking about, treating our daughter as if she were a common whore?"

"I did no such thing!"

"Were you even listening to yourself tonight?"

"Well, maybe if she'd stop acting like a common whore, I wouldn't treat her that way! Did you hear what she just said? What she was doing with Luke in that house? The thought of it turns my stomach! Why does she have to say things like that? It's indecent! Even her precious diner owner thought so!"

"Did it ever cross your mind that maybe she says those things to provoke you when you treat her the way you do? You hurt her when you treated her like a whore, so she acted like it to get back at you!"

"What about the other comments she made tonight? There was no excuse for that! Do you have any idea how much that cut me?"

"Yes, I do, Emily. After forty years together, don't you think I know when you're hurting? I know that Lorelai's comments about her being an only child bothered you, but she had no way of knowing just how hurtful that would be to you! In case you've forgotten, we never told her about the problems we had trying to have children!"

"It's not her business! That kind of thing should stay just between the two of us!"

"I quite agree," Richard said. "But if you follow that logic, the plans that she and Luke are making for their future should be between the two of them! That includes their plans for having a family. I saw that look on your face when Luke mentioned passing the diner on to his and Lorelai's children."

"What look?"

"You know exactly what look I'm talking about. That look of disgust when Luke used the plural form of the word."

"Well, it's bad enough that he got her pregnant once and I got the impression that if he had his way he'd continue to keep Lorelai barefoot and pregnant. Can you imagine it? That rotting house full of his screaming children while Lorelai spends her time being nothing more than a frumpy housewife and neglecting her business! I can't bear the thought of seeing the dream she worked so hard to achieve come crashing down around her."

"I don't see Luke letting that happen. He was a major factor in helping Lorelai to realize the dream of opening her inn. I don't think he wants anymore than you do to see it fall apart. He's quite proud of Lorelai, as am I. But you have to understand, Emily, that they are trying to build a life together and that life includes children. I don't see anything wrong with it. After spending the evening with them last night, I saw firsthand just how happy they are together."

"You mean when you ran away from home like a little boy," she sniped unwilling to relent.

"At least you knew where I was! I was right where I said I'd be when I left here last night! You didn't ever bother to call and let me know that you were all right when you left here the night before! I had to call Luke to find out that you were in Stars Hollow! Now, I've had more than enough of this endless squabbling between you and Lorelai. I want you to call her and apologize and promise to stay out of her personal life!"

"I'll stay out of her personal life! She's made it clear that there's nothing I can do to change her mind, God help her, but if you think that I'm going to apologize after the way she spoke to me tonight, you're out of your mind."

"At least think about it," Richard pleaded with his wife. "If you don't all you're going to do is drive her away again. Don't you remember what it was like after she ran away?"

"Of course, I do! That was the most distressing time of my life. How could you possibly think that I don't remember what it was like to lose my daughter?"

"Keep that in mind, Emily, because you're about to lose her again. Now, if you don't mind, I've had a very long day, so I'm going to turn in early. Just so you know I plan on staying in the guest room tonight. "

"Richard, you can't be serious," Emily said.

"Don't push me, Emily. I need some space from you right now," he said as he turned toward the stairs.

"Richard…"she said desperation in her voice but her husband ignored her and continued to ascend the stairs. Emily collapsed into her chair at the end of the dining table and dissolved into tears once again as she reflected on the events of the evening and contemplated the idea that she was losing everyone she loved.


	12. Chapter 12

AN: I'm so so sorry for the long delay in updates. Work has been completely crazy. I'm mostly back on track and back to normal size chapters now. I've got chapter 13 well on its way and hope to have it posted by this weekend. I want to say thank you for your patience to those of you who have been reading and reviewing and also offer a special shout-out once again to javajunkie86 for previewing my work and giving me some much needed feedback.

Lanie

* * *

Rory stomped into the pool house after her confrontation with her grandmother clutching the file Luke had compiled for her tightly to her chest as if it were her lifeline. She sank wearily into the sofa and began to read the letters her former co-workers had written and tears formed in her eyes as she started to realize how stupid she'd been to rely solely on what Mitchum Huntzberger had told her. Not only that, but she'd been stupid to let her grandmother mess with her head about Luke's feelings about her. Any man who would go to this length for a kid that wasn't even his was something special. She'd always known that about Luke, but somehow those positive feelings about her future step-father had been pushed to the back of her mind in all the hurt and anger she felt toward her mother and over the situation she was currently in. She reflected on his words at the dinner table about how her recent behavior had not been _her._ She knew that he was right. She'd let herself get so bogged down in her own insecurity that she'd failed to realize that her mother was only trying to help her and stop her from making a mistake that she'd regret for the rest of her life.

When she got to the bottom of the pile, she was surprised to find that the last letter was a hand-written one from Luke himself. She smiled the first real smile she had in a week as she read the heartfelt letter written in Luke's familiar scrawl. While the other letters were written with an objective professional tone, this one was entirely personal. He wrote about how he'd read every word she'd ever written, from her childhood newsletters to _The Franklin _to _The Yale Daily News _and that while he wasn't an expert in the field by any means, he knew good writing when he saw it. He pointed out in the letter the fact that she already knew that he wasn't a voracious reader like she and her grandfather were and that the way he judged good writing was that it kept his attention, something that her writing always did. He went on to state that while he enjoyed reading, he was picky about what he read and didn't read anything just because someone else said it was good. He read what he wanted to and he had always looked forward to reading whatever she wrote. He also mentioned that he'd been keeping a scrapbook for years of her work and that he'd share it with her anytime that she wanted to see it.

Rory finished reading this last letter and laid it on top of the pile. Of all the letters in this folder, it was the one that meant the most. She felt her eyes welling up with tears again as it really hit her how much Luke loved her and how childish she'd been to be jealous of the new baby and the new life he was trying to build with her mom. How could she have been so blind as to think that he'd ever want to replace her? She recalled seeing the visible pain on his face at the cruel words she'd said to him and mentally kicked herself for hurting him when he'd gone to so much effort to help her. She knew that he knew she didn't mean it, but she had to apologize in person. She pulled herself from the sofa her grandmother had picked out for her staring at it for a moment and shuddered a little at the thought that she'd put her faith in Emily instead of her mother. How could she not have seen that her grandmother's words to her had been just a ruse to pit her against her mother? She'd always known that her grandmother was bitter about the fact that her mother had made it clear she didn't need her, aside from the fact that she hated that her mother was happy with Luke. How could she have failed to see what her grandmother was really up to? She thought back to her mother's words from several months ago 'honk if Emily Gilmore views your mind as her personal playground' and realized just how accurate those words were. It seemed as if this past week, Emily had been playing with not only her mind, but her mother and Luke's as well. She finally broke her stare and decided to do something about it. She went to the bedroom to change out of her party dress and into something a little more comfortable before walking back into the main house for one more conversation with her grandmother.

"Grandma, this has to stop," she said when she found Emily seated at the dining room table.

"Rory," Emily said as she hastily wiped the tears from her eyes before rising from her seat and turning to face her granddaughter. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. I don't want to hear it," Rory said defiantly. "I just came to tell you that I'm leaving."

"Leaving? Just where are you going to go? Your mother's made it quite clear that you're no longer welcome in her home now that Luke's there," Emily said spitefully. "It's abundantly clear that she's choosing that man over her own family."

"Don't, Grandma. That ploy worked once, but it's not going to work again. If you could read the letter Luke wrote to me you'd know that nothing could be farther from the truth. I know Mom's mad at me, but I have to try to make this right with her, something you ought to think about doing yourself."

"And if you can't," Emily queried choosing to ignore Rory's comment about making things right with Lorelai herself. "Suppose your mother simply slams the door in your face or throws you out like she's been doing to me all week?"

"Then I'll stay with Lane, or I'll stay with Paris. They're my friends. One of them will take me in."

"_I _took you in. Isn't that good enough for you?"

"Not when it was done just out of spite to get to Mom," Rory said hotly.

"That wasn't done out of spite! I was trying to help you!"

"That is such a crock! You never wanted to help me! You just wanted to hurt Mom! You and Mom have been at each other's throats for years and you couldn't wait to try to get back at her for all the times you think she's been a disappointment to you. I see now why Mom ran away when I was a baby."

"I _was _trying to help you. You said you couldn't possibly deal with your mother the way she was acting and I let you have a place to stay and redecorated it for you, I hired a lawyer for you, I was there when you went to court when your mother wasn't, I helped you get your car back and I've been doing nothing but trying to take care of you! Where was your mother during all of that? Did she do any of that for you? No! She was too busy running around with that man and making plans to completely waste her life!"

"Mom's life with Luke is not a waste! They really love each other and they're happy together! Why can't you see that? Isn't that what you always wanted for Mom, to see her happy?"

"If she's that happy with her new life, what makes you think that she'll just welcome you back with open arms?"

"I don't know that she will, but I have to try. Either way, I can't stay here now that I know that you've been trying to break up Mom and Luke's relationship again!"Rory shouted at her grandmother as she walked out the front door.

"What on earth is going on down here," Richard's boomed as he walked down the stairs having heard the shouting from the guest room.

"Rory's leaving," Emily said coolly folding her arms across her chest. "Going back to Stars Hollow."

"Good," Richard said.

"Good? How can you say that? After everything we've done for her, she's running away just like Lorelai did."

"Oh please, Emily! She's not running away! She was running away when she came here! It's a good thing that she's going back to Stars Hollow. Maybe she and her mother will be able to reach some kind of compromise. Luke was right in what he said tonight. The two of them not talking to each other is wrong!"

"And of course you're taking _his _side again," she spat venomously.

"What has he ever done to make you treat him like you do?"

"Didn't you hear what Lorelai said tonight about the two of them and whatever disgusting thing they were doing in that dilapidated house?"

"Yes, I heard, Emily and I thought we already covered that. You know that she only said that to get a rise out of you."

"Well, it's still revolting," Emily said with a grimace.

"Funny, I don't remember you being so prudish about things like that when we were young," he fired back at her. "Don't you remember what it was like when we first moved into this house? You insisted that we had to properly christen every room. I imagine that they're just doing something similar."

"I remember, Richard, but that was different. We were married."

"And they will be married very soon. Why are you being such a snob about this? Do you have any idea how crazy you sound?"

"_I'm _crazy? What about you? You don't seem to care one bit that thanks to that heinous man, our daughter is once again pregnant and unmarried. Or that her pregnancy came about in the worst way possible!"

"The worst way possible?" He repeated incredulously. "Are you serious? You make it sound as if Luke forced himself on her!"

"Well, he might as well have forced himself on her, taking advantage of her when he knew that she'd been drinking!"

"You talk as if she has no will of her own when we both know that's not true!"

"But can you imagine it? The two of them stumbling home from a party drunk and that vile man with his filthy hands all over her making her give in to him!"

"Grow up, Emily! Lorelai is an adult and I'm quite sure that with or without liquor she's more than willing to 'give in to him' as you put it! I think you also seem to forget that Lorelai herself was conceived in much the same way. Don't you remember your twenty-fifth birthday party? When you and I were a little tipsy ourselves? I haven't forgotten it! We'd given up on trying to have a baby until that night when we also came stumbling home under the influence of alcohol!"

"That was completely different! We were married! They're not! You don't seem to care about that at all!"

"I do care, Emily, and it doesn't thrill me a bit that they didn't wait until they were married to conceive, but there's nothing that we can do to change it. It's happened and they're dealing with it the best way that they can. They've bought a house and they're planning a wedding and trying to build a real life together just like you and I were doing forty years ago. Also, just like we were, they're making it work in spite of family objections or have you forgotten about the fact that my mother never wanted you as her daughter-in-law?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten," she snapped hurt that he'd bring that up knowing how painful the subject was for her. "Finding that letter she wrote to you was heartbreaking, knowing that she never thought I was good enough for you. Do you know how much that hurt me when I tried for years to prove to her that I could be a good wife to you?"

"Yes, I know how much that hurt you, but has it ever crossed your mind that you're doing the same thing to Luke? You're treating him like dirt for no reason other than the fact that he doesn't come up to your insanely high expectations."

"My expectations are not that high. I just want to know that our daughter will be well taken care of."

"She will be well taken care of. Luke's business is doing very well, especially since the _Times _review."

"We're back to that damned review again! I suppose you're going to tell me I need to re-read it just like Rory did!"

"You do and you need to set aside your opinion of Luke while you do! Our granddaughter wasn't wrong in what she said tonight! If it had been written about any other restaurant, you'd have been there before anyone else! I remember many times over the years when you've dragged me off to some new restaurant just because some idiot critic raved about it, most of which I hated by the way! These places you like to go to always serve proper tiny portions with unidentifiable sauces and crazy side dishes no one's ever heard of!"

"But I suppose your breakfast at _Luke's _was a culinary masterpiece," she said scathingly.

"As a matter of fact, it was and a very nice change of pace, as was the dinner he prepared at their house last night. Best lamp chops I ever ate."

"So, he can cook. Big deal," she said still not willing to give Luke the credit he was due.

"It _is _a big deal when you consider the fact that that's how he makes his living. I can see why his diner is so successful. He serves food that everyday people actually want to eat."

"I suppose that's perfectly acceptable to you since you like that vile Johnny Machete concoction you put together."

"What's wrong with it? The girls liked it, but you wouldn't even give it a chance because it was just one more thing that didn't meet your standards."

"It was disgusting."

"You barely even tasted it, but that doesn't even matter anymore. It's just more evidence that you're not the woman I thought you were when I married you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Don't you know, Emily? Didn't you ever wonder why I chose you over Pennilyn Lott, even though she was the woman my mother wanted me to marry? Or what made me fall in love with you?"

"No, I guess I don't," she said sadly.

"Because you were different than all the stuck-up snobs my mother set me up with. You didn't give a damn what people thought about you. You were reared in the same priggish world that I was, but that didn't faze you. You lived your life the way you wanted to and to hell with what everyone else thought of you! I wanted that life! I hated the snobbery of the world I grew up in, just like Lorelai did. I had planned to marry Linny because that was what I was expected to do, but I couldn't do it once I met you! I didn't want to live my parents' life. I fell in love with you the moment I first saw you because of your passion for living life to its fullest, but all that changed once we were married! _You _changed! You became the same stuck-up snob that I was trying to get away from!"

"Well, it's nice to know after forty years of marriage, that you've been unhappy all this time," she said bitterly.

"I haven't been unhappy, Emily. I've been very happy with you for most of our forty years together and I still love you just as much as I did the day we said our vows, but I don't love the person you've become lately. You're acting just like my mother used to when we were young! You're trying to interfere with a relationship that has made our daughter happy just like she tried to interfere in ours!"

"We're back to Luke again," she said with a frustrated sigh.

"Yes, isn't that what this whole thing is all about. You're angry with me because I can see the good in the man that you've sneered at. You act like he's beneath you when nothing could be further from the truth. He's built a successful business all on his own, a business that continues to keep him financially stable, contrary to your low opinion of him as a provider. I strongly believe that it's his talent in the kitchen that's kept it going. The dinner that he cooked last night was nothing short of amazing."

"Let's hear even more about his _amazing_ talent," she replied waspishly.

Richard ignored her sarcasm and continued, "He also served a delicious boysenberry pie for dessert."

"Pie?'

"Yes, pie. I know it's not the same as those ridiculously sweet confections that you're so fond of, but it was good all the same and guess what? I sat with Lorelai in her kitchen eating directly out of the pie plate after Luke went to bed. I rather enjoyed it too."

"Eating out of the pie plate?"Emily asked appalled that he would have done such a thing.

"Yes and talking with Lorelai. We had the first real conversation we've had in years! You don't know how long I've wanted to have a better relationship with my daughter!"

"Do you think I don't want that too?"

"If you want a better relationship with her, you need to accept the decisions she's making with her life."

"I can't," she said bitterly. "Not when I think she's making a mistake."

"Then you'll lose her, but I'm not going to let that happen to me. The conversation I had with Lorelai last night meant the world to me and I hope to have more open conversations like that with her in the future."

"Sure, she'll talk to Daddy, but she won't talk to me," she said in a childishly pouty tone of voice much like when she'd called him the favorite a few months ago when she'd first tried to break up Luke and Lorelai's relationship.

"Because you don't try to really talk to her or listen to her," Richard pointed out. "All you do is berate her for not living the life that you want her to live! She's tried to tell you many times how happy she is with Luke and how much she loves him, but you don't want to hear it because you don't like the man. Why do you hate him so much?"

"Well, why do you like him so much?"She countered with a challenging arched eyebrow.

"I don't," Richard said.

"Then why are you all for this wedding if you don't like the man either?"

"I neither like him nor dislike him," Richard explained. "I don't know him well enough to really form an opinion one way or another, but I do know that I like what I see in Lorelai when she's with him. It seems that he keeps her grounded and as scattered as she tends to be, that's a good thing. I like that he treats her with respect and that he genuinely loves her and does everything within his power to make her happy. That's good enough for me."

"Well, it's not good enough for me! In my opinion, Lorelai deserves more!"

"Your opinion doesn't matter! Don't you understand that? Lorelai loves Luke!" When Emily simply snorted at this he repeated himself. "She _loves _him, Emily. _Really _loves him! Why is that so hard for you to see?"

"I _do _see it, Richard," She admitted. "I've seen it for years, ever since I first saw them together at Rory's sixteenth birthday party."

"Then why are you so determined to destroy her relationship?"

"Because that man is simply not good enough for her! As much as she loves him, love alone isn't enough! She needs someone more stable, someone who's able to provide for her every need!"

"He _is _able to provide for her every need! Why is it that everyone can see that but you? The entire town of Stars Hollow sees it, but you don't! Why do you think they've planned that big engagement party for them? While we're on the subject, why didn't you bother to tell me about it? Sookie said she left several messages to let us know about the party! Were you planning on telling me about it at all?"

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to! That I would've been able to stop this nonsense before it came to that!"

"Well, you weren't and you won't be in the future! Luke and Lorelai are _going _to get married no matter what new scheme you come up with to tear them apart!"

"I realize that," Emily said sadly. "And I already told you there won't be any new scheme! I'm done with trying to make Lorelai listen to reason! She's too damned stubborn to listen to what I have to say, so let her live in squalor with that man if she wants to. I know who she'll come running to when she needs money again."

"I highly doubt that will happen, Emily," Richard said. He knew that Luke was plenty capable of providing for his growing family whether his snobbish wife could see it or not.

"Then you're an idiot!"Emily said as she turned from her husband and walked up the stairs to their bedroom saddened by the fact that she'd be sleeping in it alone.

Richard stood for a moment staring at his wife's retreating back and sighed before walking to the bar and pouring himself a glass of whiskey. He swallowed the amber-colored liquid hard, its bitterness rivaling the bitterness he felt toward his wife as he sat down in his familiar armchair and contemplated how to attempt to get his wife to listen to reason and make amends with their daughter before it was too late. He reflected on his words to her about her changing and couldn't help but wonder what had happened to transform her from the carefree young woman with the devil-may-care attitude to this overbearing snob she'd become. It hadn't always been this way. He couldn't even put his finger on exactly when it had changed. He knew it had been after they were married, but he didn't think it was marriage alone that had changed her. He couldn't even remember if it had been before or after Lorelai had been born. He did remember vividly though that she'd been the subject of gossip many times when she was young because her wild behavior had been deemed inappropriate, but he hadn't cared. He'd found it refreshing to find someone within his own world who scoffed at society's rules and lived life as if every day were her last. He desperately missed that woman and wondered how to get her back.

* * *

Luke opened the front door of the crap shack and let Lorelai walk in ahead of him before tossing his keys haphazardly on the entry table. He looked at his fiancée and his heart broke for her. She hadn't said two words on the drive home from Hartford. His attempts at trying to engage her in conversation had failed, much to his dismay. Lorelai's silence was unnerving to him. More than that, it was unnatural. She was a natural chatterbox, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. She loved to talk. Even when they were making love, she wasn't silent, so this new side of Lorelai scared him. Lorelai remained silent as she headed up the stairs toward their bedroom.

Luke followed her, loosening his tie as he went and shrugging out of his jacket as he stepped inside the bedroom and watched silently as Lorelai reached for the familiar blue flannel shirt that she liked to sleep in. He saw her pause and absently stroke the quilt that perpetually lay there at foot of the bed, the one that he knew she'd made herself out of Rory's old baby clothes. It was then that he felt a pain like a knife through his heart as she dropped the flannel shirt, dissolved into tears and sank onto the bed. He didn't waste any time following her and enveloping her as she sobbed. He held her tight while she cried over her lost daughter and the hurt her mother had caused her. No words were needed. He knew why she was crying. He simply held her until the tears subsided and stroked her back and brushed feather-light kisses against her face, her hair, her neck, any part of her he could reach just so that she'd know he was there for her. He'd been doing that a lot lately since Rory's defection to her grandparents' house.

When her body stopped shaking, Lorelai continued to cling to him, feeling safe in his comforting embrace. No man had ever made her feel this secure before. She hated leaning on anyone for anything because it made her feel weak. She had always been independent and never felt like she needed anyone else, but with Luke things were different. Leaning on him made her feel better because far from making her feel weak, it made her feel stronger. She relied on his strength to get her through. She recalled briefly what her mother had said at her vow renewal about how nice it was to have a partner and she realized that Luke was that partner for her in every sense of the word. She pulled back from him just enough to see the pained look in his eyes and knew instantly that her pain was his. He was hurting for her just as much as she herself was hurting. As she felt his calloused hands once again brushing away the tears from her eyes, she felt an overwhelming sense of longing for him like she'd felt the night she'd proposed to him when he was ranting about how to get Rory back home. She crawled into his lap, straddling him and kissed him feverishly wanting desperately to be as close to him as humanly possible.

Luke responded by once again wrapping his arms around her and kissing her back pouring all the love in his heart into his kisses as his tongue tangled with hers. He felt her reaching for the button on his pants and let out a groan as she rubbed against him. He pulled back a little and looked into her eyes as if asking for permission to continue. He wanted her and loved making love with her, but he felt like he was taking advantage of her pain.

"Please, Luke," she pleaded with him, the first words she'd spoken since leaving her parents' house. "I need you," she whispered in his ear as she pressed herself against him again while tugging at his dress shirt to untuck it from his suit pants.

That was all the encouragement Luke needed to finish what they'd started. He pulled back from her slightly as he reached for bottom of her dress and pulled it over her head dropping it to the floor before she resumed her task of getting his shirt removed along with the tee underneath it. They both kicked off their shoes and she stood momentarily to shimmy out of her panties before he pulled her back onto his lap and began again by kissing her senseless before lowering his mouth to that sensitive spot on her neck that he knew drove her crazy. He heard her sigh as she ground herself against him telling him that he was doing everything right. She reached between them and again struggled with the button on his pants. While he was doing everything he could to please her, she'd finally succeeded in getting his pants open and slipping her hand inside causing him to moan against her throat as she stroked him. "Off, now," Lorelai begged him tugging at his pants as she pulled back a little to allow him to get out of them. He obliged her before sitting back on the bed and once again pulling her into his lap and kissing her fiercely as they moved against each other. "No, not like this," she said pulling back from him again slightly. He released her with a sigh and started to reach for the sweatpants he'd left folded on the nightstand feeling like an ass for taking advantage of her hurt. He should have known better. "That's not what I meant," she said pulling him back to her and kissing him again. "I want you on top," she explained.

"I'll hurt you," he said. Even though they'd talked to the doctor about their sex life and he'd assured them that it was perfectly safe, he was still worried that he might hurt their baby.

"No, you won't. I know you won't. _You'd_ never hurt me," she said her meaning all too clear. Luke knew she still couldn't get over the fact that her mother was intentionally hurting her. She pulled on him again trying to urge him down needing to feel his comforting weight above her. "Please," she said reaching up to kiss him again and tugging relentlessly on the back of his neck. He gave in finally, reaching for her and lowering her to the bed beneath him kissing her tenderly shifting his body as he tried to make sure that he wouldn't be crushing her with his weight. When she arched up into him, wrapped her legs around him and said, "I need you inside me," he was lost. He had no choice but to give into her. He reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers trying to give her what she needed. He knew that this wasn't just about them, but about her need to feel loved and he was more than happy to show her just how much he loved her.

Lorelai sighed as she felt his lips softly brushing her skin, his fingers clasped in hers as he moved slowly inside her. She clung to him with her free hand pulling him down to her, wanting to feel every inch of his body touching hers, needing to be close.

Luke felt her tightening her legs around him to urge him to move faster, but he simply said, "No, let me love you, " he said as he again kissed her softly using his free hand to caress her face. He hated seeing the residue of her tears there. He wanted more than anything to take away her pain, but he had to settle for comforting her the way she wanted to be comforted. "I love you so much," he choked out. He knew the words weren't necessary but he felt the need to say them anyway to reassure her that she was loved. He continued to make love to her in the same fashion as he held himself back, silencing her pleas to speed things up, determined that this time was going to be about their love for one another and not just a need for physical release. When he felt her relax beneath him, he kissed her gently and brushed her hair back from her still damp face, his eyes never leaving hers, wanting to show her all the love he felt for her. He hoped with all his heart that she got the message. When he began to hear the familiar sounds of their lovemaking coming from her, he knew that he'd accomplished his goal.

When it was over, he rolled over onto his back pulling her with him and letting her collapse atop him. He smiled when he heard her whisper, "I love you," against his bare chest. His heart soared at hearing the words. Even though he'd heard them from her before, it never ceased to amaze him that the woman he had loved for so long actually loved him too.

"I love you, too," He said as he kissed the top of her head and once again reached for her hand entangling his fingers with hers.

"Thank you," she said softly as she gazed up at him adoringly.

"For what," He asked.

"For always knowing what I need," she said with a slight smile as she kissed him.

"Feel any better?"

"A little," she said. "What about you? This has to better than the hardwood floor."

"Much better," he said with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry I'm such a basket case," she said sadly averting her gaze from his.

"Hey, you don't have anything to apologize for," he said as he lifted her head back to force her to look at him. "If I'd been through what you have this week, I'd be a basket case too. You're handling this stuff a whole lot better than I would."

"Maybe," she said sounding unconvinced. She didn't have anywhere near the strength that Luke did. She'd been falling apart all day dreading the dinner at her parents' house while he'd been the strong one, driving all the way to Stamford to get some reassurance for Rory, the way he'd be trying to reassure her all week. "That was an amazing thing you did for Rory today."

"Well, let's just hope it made an impression."

"Yeah," she said in a melancholy tone.

"She'll come around," He assured her, sounding more confident than he felt. He kept coming back to Rory's harsh words to him. He knew in his heart that she didn't mean them. Her apologetic look across the table at him had told him that, but it hurt all the same. There was nothing he wouldn't do for her and her mother. He just hoped that they both realized it.

"Hey," Lorelai said tapping his chest with her fingernails.

"What?" he said looking down at her expectant face.

"You promised me a _Buffy_ musical tonight," she reminded him.

"You still wanna' watch it?"

"Yeah, I do," she said as she scrambled out of bed and once again reached for the discarded flannel shirt. Luke lay there watching her until she pulled his shirt on covering her naked body before pulling himself out of bed and reaching for his sweatpants and tee that he normally slept in and putting them on. "You were watching me, weren't you?"She teased.

"Just admiring the view, "He said with a smile.

"Perv," she said.

"Says the woman who was staring at my butt in front of her dad this morning," He fired back.

"It wasn't just your butt I was staring at," she replied with a wicked grin.

"Now who's the perv?"He said as he reached for her waist, pulled her to him and kissed her lightly. "You want popcorn?"

"Is that supposed to be a rhetorical question?"

"Dumb question," he said shaking his head as he released her and headed for the door. "My mistake. I'll go make it."

"Ok, I'll be down in a minute," she said to his retreating back as she bent to pick up the quilt that had been kicked to the floor during their lovemaking. She ran her hand across the square that contained a piece of the outfit Rory had worn home from the hospital after she was born and sighed as she felt the tears welling up again. She furiously blinked them back, refusing to let them fall as she thought of her doctor's words to her today. She needed to stay as stress-free as possible, he'd told her, for the safety of her unborn child. She tossed the quilt back onto the bed as she made her way from the room without looking back determined not to let herself worry about it anymore. She had a new child to look after and she wasn't going to let her grown child mess with that. If what Luke had done for Rory wasn't enough to turn her around, nothing would be. She lightly laid her hand over her flat stomach and smiled with the knowledge that she was going to be able to give that wonderful, caring man a child of his own.

While Lorelai was upstairs, Luke started the popcorn. Just as he'd started the microwave, the phone rang. He picked it up on the first ring, hoping it would be Rory calling to make amends with her mother. "Hello?"

Luke was disappointed to hear Emily's icy voice on the other end saying, "I'd like to speak to my daughter."

"No," he said firmly. "She doesn't want to talk to you." He didn't know for sure that that was true, but he wasn't going to let it happen all the same. He'd just gotten her somewhat calmed down and wasn't going to let Emily upset her again.

"Please, Luke," Emily said a hint of desperation in her voice.

Luke had never heard Emily sound so lost, but he still refused to give in. He wasn't going to take the chance that she'd hurt the woman he loved again. "Not tonight, Emily. She's tired. In fact, we were in bed for the night," he lied, his voice dripping with innuendo, knowing exactly how Emily would take that. "Maybe tomorrow. Good-night, Emily." With that, he disconnected the call, placing the phone back in its cradle just as Lorelai walked down the stairs toward him.

"Who was on the phone?"Lorelai asked him.

"No one. Telemarketer," He lied not wanting to get her riled up again.

"You're a terrible liar, my friend," she said. "Telemarketers don't call at ten O'clock at night."

"This was a very persistent telemarketer. Would you like to switch to AT&T?"He said in a sales rep-type voice.

"Luke," she said with an exasperated sigh. "Who was really on the phone? Was it Rory?"

"No, it was your mother," he confessed. "She wanted to talk to you."

Lorelai took in a sharp breath and asked, "What did you tell her?"

"I told her that she could talk to you tomorrow and that we were already in bed for the night."

"Why did you do that? Now she's going to expect to talk to me tomorrow, not to mention the fact that now she's gonna think that we're having sex. She already thinks I'm nothing but a big slut. That just gives her more reason to believe that."

"Who cares what she thinks after the way she talked to you tonight? Besides, _weren't_ we just having sex ten minutes ago," he said with a devilish grin as he reached for her.

"Ok, you got me there," she said with a smile as her mind lingered for a moment on the tenderness Luke had shown her when she felt like she was falling apart. She leaned her head against the solid wall of his chest and breathed in his masculine scent comforted by his strong hand on her back.

"I'm sorry," he said using his free hand to stroke her hair. "I just wish…" his voice trailed off not completing his thought.

She lifted her head and looked into his dark blue eyes and said simply, "I know." And she did know. She knew that he was the fix-it guy, the one who saw something broken and felt the need to fix it, but in this case, no matter what he did, this time he couldn't fix what was broken. She loved him for wanting to though. She reached up and kissed him softly as the microwave beeped. She pulled back and saying, "That's the popcorn. Come on, let's go watch _Buffy." _

Luke and Lorelai were cuddled up on the couch a short time later Luke laughing while Lorelai sang loudly, "Bunnies, bunnies, it must be bunnies!"

"I never did quite get the bunny thing," Luke said with a shake of his head.

"Come on, Hon, She's a thousand-year-old man-killing demon and she's terrified of bunnies. That's what makes it funny."

"I get that part, but why? She killed, tortured, and maimed big bad men for more than a thousand years and she's scared of something as harmless as a bunny. It makes no sense," he said with a shake of his head.

"I don't know why. Maybe she got scared once by the killer bunny from _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_," she said with a laugh sensing a Luke-rant coming on.

"But…," He was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell. "Who could that be at this hour?" His stomach knotted painfully at the thought that it might be Emily again showing up unexpectedly to cause more heartache for Lorelai. He wouldn't put it past her after he'd blown her off on the phone.

"Why don't you answer the door and find out," she suggested.

He pulled himself from the couch. "Yes, Ma'am. I live to serve," he said with an over-the-top bow toward her causing her to giggle. He walked to the door dreading opening it, but he knew it had to be done. He sighed and opened the door, fully expecting Emily to come barreling through it like she'd done earlier in the week. He was pleasantly surprised instead to find Rory standing on the porch nervously an overnight bag slung across her shoulder. "Hey, Kid," he said gesturing for her to come in.

"Hi," Rory said softly as she stepped into the foyer, not daring to look up at him after the way she'd hurt him tonight.

"You ok?"He asked concern in his eyes at the pitiful expression on her face. She simply nodded mutely. "That was convincing," he said sarcastically.

"I read your letter," she said quietly wanting to tell him how she'd felt about it, but not quite sure how after the biting words she'd flung at him at her grandparents' house.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she said finally looking up at him at hearing the tone in his voice. Upon seeing the hopeful look on his face, she let out what she was feeling. "Luke, I'm so sorry. I never should have said what I did to you tonight! You've been so great to me my whole life and you've always gone out of your way to look after me when my father never gave a damn and you've been the only real father-figure I've ever had. I had no right to treat you like that. Your letter made me realize I'm a jerk and a butthead and a massive bitch and a whole lot of other words that mean I was stupid and selfish and I'm so _so_ sorry," she said in a rush tears streaming down her face by the time she was done.

Luke responded by reaching out to her and gripping her in a tight hug."It's ok, Kid," he said as he planted a kiss on the top of her head. He chuckled a little at her words and added with a smile, "You've got your mother's talent for rambling."

"Wow," Lorelai's voice rang out as she stepped into the foyer. "Look at this. I let you leave my side for five minutes and you're already in the arms of another woman," she quipped trying to laugh off the tense situation.

Luke released Rory and turned to his fiancée saying, "Hey, it's your fault. You're the one who didn't want to get up to answer the door."

Rory looked at her mother, taking in her attire and stammered, "I…I'm sorry. I'm disturbing you guys."

"You're not disturbing us," Luke said adamantly. "We were just watching TV."

"Really?" she said not quite convinced at seeing her mother wearing only Luke's shirt.

"Really, "Lorelai said with a gesture to the TV as she stepped into the living room indicating that she wanted Rory to follow her. "See?" as she again gestured at the TV that now had the cast of _Buffy _frozen on its screen since she'd paused the show when she heard her daughter's voice. "_Once More With Feeling,_"

"Nice," Rory said. "Funny episode."

"You wanna watch it with us?"

"I wouldn't be intruding? I mean, I know you guys are living here together now," Rory said once again hanging her head still not sure she was welcome there.

"How can you possibly think that you'd be intruding in your own home?"Her mother asked incredulously.

"I don't know. I just thought…"

At seeing the tension between Lorelai and her daughter, Luke spoke up, "Listen, why don't you two finish it together?"

"No, Luke," Rory said. "You and Mom had your own thing going on and I'm disrupting that."

"No, you're not," Luke said. "You two need to talk and I have to get up early anyway, so I should get some sleep."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," he said as he headed for the stairs.

Lorelai followed him saying, "Hold on a sec." When Luke turned, she kissed him and whispered, "Thank you." He nodded in response and continued his journey up the stairs leaving mother and daughter alone.


	13. Chapter 13

AN: This chapter is a much shorter one than I usually write, but I felt the need to cut it off where I did because I wanted this one to be primarily about Lorelai and Rory's reconciliation. The next chapter is well on its way and should be posted by the weekend, I hope. That's if my insane work hours don't get the better of me. Thanks so much to all who have been reading and reviewing.

For a moment after Luke had gone upstairs, Lorelai and Rory just stared at each other, neither sure what to do or who should make the first move. Finally, Rory broke the silence by saying, "So….um…you and Luke are getting married."

"Yeah," Lorelai replied. "June 25th."

"June 25th. Wow, soon," she commented. "And you moved in together, wow. That's a first for you," Rory said awkwardly.

"I know. It's a little scary, but, you know, it's good too."

"Good," Rory replied before nervously asking,. "So…um…with your new living situation…is it…is it ok that I'm here?" She looked down again and nervously clutched the overnight bag she'd brought with her that she still hadn't put down.

"How can you even ask me that?"Lorelai questioned hurt that her daughter still thought she was trying to use Luke to replace her. "Of course it's ok that you're here. This is your home and always will be."

"But you've got a new house and all…I…um…didn't really know…."Her voice trailed off, tears welling in her eyes again.

"That doesn't change the fact that this is your home. Contrary to what your grandmother told you, this is your home just as much as it is mine and we weren't planning on selling it without your approval. I couldn't do that to you and I'm a little bothered by the fact that you felt the need to ring the bell instead of just coming in. You should know that I could never keep you out of your own home."

"Well, how was I supposed to know what to do when you told me I couldn't come home?"

"You could've, I don't know, asked me! Just so you know, the reason I told you that you couldn't come home is that I couldn't stand the thought of seeing you doing nothing but bumming around Stars Hollow and throwing away your dreams. That would break my heart when you've worked so hard to get where you are. Are you seriously willing to just throw all that hard work away as if it meant nothing?"

"I don't know!" Rory cried as the tears streamed down her face. "I don't know what to do. All I've ever wanted was to be a journalist and when Mitchum told me that I couldn't, I…I just got a little nuts."

"Screw him! He may own half the newspapers in the free world, but he's also a petty, vindictive man who hates the thought of you being with his precious son! Did you ever once stop to think that maybe that's why he said the things he said to you?"

"Mom, I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."

"Yes, you should have, but that's not what bugs me the most. What really hurt me is that when I said something you didn't want to hear, you went running to my parents behind my back, knowing that I would find out about it and knowing that it would hurt me."

"I was wrong, ok? I get that now! Can't we just please move on from this? I can't stand having you mad at me!"

"Is that what you think? That I'm mad at you?"

"Aren't you?"

"No, I'm not mad. I'm disappointed and I'm hurt, but not mad. I just want so much for you to be happy and I don't think that dropping out of school is what's going to make you happy. It may relieve some of the drama you're going through right now, but in the long run, it's just going to make you even more unhappy. You used to love to learn and read and study! And it was freakish, but that was you! This running away from your problems and hiding out at my parents' house isn't!"

"So, um…does that mean I can stay? I really don't wanna go back to Grandma's, not now that I know what she's been up to with you and Luke."

"Your room's still in the same place it was when you left. A little emptier though," Lorelai said with a sigh as she recalled how just a few nights ago she'd packed up her daughter's remaining belongings and hauled them off to her parents' house in the middle of the night, prompting her mother's middle-of-the-night invasion of her home that had started her whole crusade to break up the happiest relationship she'd ever been in.

"Luke won't mind? I'm kind of intruding here."

"No, Luke won't mind. He wanted to haul you back here the night you ran off to Hartford. Besides if anyone's the intruder here, it's him," Lorelai said with a smile.

"Nice thing to say about the man you're about to marry," Rory replied with a mirthful grin, knowing her mother was joking.

"Yeah, well, I've never lived with a guy before so the whole sharing-my-space thing is kind of wigging me out a little, but it's good, me and Luke. It had to happen eventually. We're getting married really soon, so it was just inevitable."

"But you're…happy?"

"Yeah, Sweets, I'm happy. Even happier now that my kid is home," She reached for the bag still slung over her daughter's shoulder and dropped it to the floor before enclosing her in a hug.

"I missed you so much, Mom," Rory said as she hugged Lorelai back. "And I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry too," Lorelai said as she hung onto Rory for dear life. "I should've listened to Luke and gotten you out of there the night you left."

"I love you, Mom," Rory said as she gripped her mother tighter.

"Kid, you have no idea," Lorelai replied glad still clinging to her just happy to have her home.

The two women continued to hold each other tight until Rory jumped back when she felt a ball of fur brush against her leg. "Oh my God!" she said as she looked down. "You've got a dog!"

Lorelai laughed at her reaction and said, "You mean that's something Grandma didn't tell you first?"

"No, she didn't mention that."

"Well, at least I get to share one piece of news with you first." She held her hand up to her ear, miming holding a phone and said, "Hey, Rory, guess what? I got a dog!"

"Really?" She said following her mother's actions.

"Yeah, his name's Paul Anka," Lorelai said exuberantly.

"And he's alive?"Rory said in mock concern.

"Yes, he's alive and I'm not discussing that hamster again," Lorelai said indignantly.

"But you asked Babette to double-check that you feed it in the morning?"

"That's _so _not necessary, and yes."

"A dog, wow!"

"Yeah," Lorelai said a little sadly and lowered her hand dropping the phone pretense. "Doesn't have the same punch of "I'm getting married!" or "I'm pregnant." She flopped down on the couch and sighed in frustration that her mother had taken a precious moment away from her.

"No," Rory said with sadness creeping into her voice as well as she sat down beside her mother.

"I really wanted you to be the first to know, and I wanted you to hear the news from me. I hate it that my mother ruined it for you."

"Who are you kidding, Mom? _I _ruined it for me by being stubborn and thoughtless and pig-headed and Luke was right, I should've called sooner."

"Yeah, well, I should've driven up there to tell you in person. That's not the kind of news you should share over the phone anyway. It should be a face-to-face announcement."

"Well, you can at least give me the details. I mean, not the dirty ones or anything, but how about starting with the proposal. How did he do it" Rory asked eager to hear more about how the many changes in her mother's life came about. "Did he do the whole getting-down-on-one-knee bit or did he take you out to a nice dinner, or surprise you by hiding the ring in something he cooked? I bet that's something Luke would do since he knows how much you love food. Ooh, no I got it! I bet he just blurted out the proposal mid-rant. I could see Luke doing that. Be going off about something totally off-topic, then out of nowhere, ask you to marry him. That would be such a Luke thing to do. So, which was it?"

"None of the above, actually, though you're close on the mid-rant thing, but I was the one who blurted it out mid-rant."

"What?"

"Yeah, there he was in the diner, having a total cow about you leaving school and going through all these crazy ideas about how we were going to fix you. As I sat there listening to him go on and on about how we were going to storm my parents' house and kidnap you and tell Yale you were off your meds, and then drag you to your classes, and stalk you at school to make sure you go, I just thought in that moment, 'This is it. This is _the _guy.' Before my stupid brain figured out what was happening, my heart was screaming 'ask him' followed closely by my big mouth."

"Wait, _you _proposed to Luke?"Rory asked her eyes widening in surprise. "How'd he react?"

"He was stunned into silence at first and you know when Luke's mid-rant, that's a hard feat to accomplish. Then once it sunk it what I'd said, he said yes in like three seconds."

"Wow. It didn't bother him that you were the one to propose, not him?"

"It didn't until Miss Patty and Babette started pumping him for information about our engagement, then Kirk started making him feel bad about missing his moment to be the romantic one."

"Yikes," Rory said.

"He totally made up for it though. He came here Tuesday night, ring in hand, and presented it to me underneath the chuppah he'd built for me."

"Wow, sweet," Rory said with a smile. "So, let me see the ring."

"Oh, right, you haven't really seen it yet, have you?" Lorelai said as she held out her left hand and let her daughter examine the diamond ring upon it.

"Wow, it's beautiful. Luke's got some good taste."

"Yes, he does," Lorelai said beaming at the fact that she was finally getting to share her happiness with her best friend.

Rory released her mother's hand and said "So, how'd the baby thing come about? I mean, I know how it happened, but what made you start thinking that it wasn't a false alarm again?"

"No period, but I think I knew even when I told you it was a false alarm, that it really wasn't."

"Wow," Rory said again. "And Luke's happy about it?"

"Hon, he is absolutely over the moon about it," Lorelai said grinning from ear to ear. "As it turns out, he's been thinking about kids even longer than I have. He's been trying to but the Twickham house for us for months. That's the whole reason he volunteered to help with the museum. He wanted to get on Taylor's good side and stay close to the house so he could buy it for us."

"Wow, it must have really meant a lot to him if he was sucking up to Taylor."

"That's like your tenth 'wow' tonight. Didn't you learn any new words to expand your vocabulary in that fancy Ivy League school of yours?" Lorelai teased.

"It's not _my_ fancy Ivy League school anymore," Rory said her voice tinged with sadness.

"That could change," Lorelai said. "It's only been a week. Plus, you've got all summer to do something about it."

"I'm not sure I want to do something about it."

"Rory, did that trip Luke took to the paper mean nothing to you?"Lorelai asked incredulously starting to get upset again.

"It meant _everything_ to me, especially the letter Luke himself wrote to me, but I'm just still not sure about going back to Yale right away. I really messed up there by dropping out, plus I've got all these hours of community service ahead of me and I don't know how I'm going to get it all done and still hold down a full-time school schedule."

"Luke wrote you a letter too?"Lorelai asked burning with curiosity wondering what he'd have written.

"You didn't know?"

"No," Lorelai answered. "I didn't even know what he was up to until dinner tonight. He said he had some errands to run and that was it."

"You should read it. It's a great letter," Rory moved from her spot on the couch long enough to rummage through her bag and retrieve the folder that Luke had brought her. "It's the one right on top," she said as she handed it to her mother before resuming her position on the couch. She was soon joined by Paul Anka who'd figured out by now that she wasn't a threat and curled up in her lap. Rory smiled and began to pet him while her mother read.

"Wow," Lorelai said when she'd finished her eyes misting at the heartfelt words her future husband had written to her daughter.

"Now who needs to expand her vocabulary?"Rory teased.

"Well, in this case, 'wow' pretty much sums it up," Lorelai said the tears in her eyes spilling out.

"Mom, don't," Rory said as she laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I can't stand seeing you crying."

Lorelai reached for her daughter and hugged her tight saying, "You don't get it, Hon. For the first time since you left I'm actually crying happy tears."

"God, I was so stupid," Rory said gripping her mother tight.

"I was stupid. I never should have let things get that bad. I should've taken Luke and Paris' advice and locked you in a room to make you listen to reason."

Rory laughed and pulled back from her mother. "As stubborn as I was being, I don't know if it would have done any good. I was kind of being a brat."

"Kind of," Lorelai said with a mirthful grin.

"Hey!"

Lorelai sighed and asked the question she'd been wanting to since Rory had walked through the door, "So, does Grandma know you're here?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Grandma and I had a huge screaming match after you guys left. It just made me so mad when I found out all the crap she's been doing to mess with you and Luke."

"You don't know the half of it," Lorelai said as she launched into a summary of all the various things Emily had done all week.

"Oh my God," Rory said when Lorelai had finished. "She actually walked in on you and Luke naked? I would've given anything to see the look on her face in that moment!"

"Just picture the look she had on her face when I made that crack about driving stick tonight and add about three more shades of green," Lorelai said with a grin.

"Jeez," Rory said with a laugh. "I guess that explains her Samantha Jones crack tonight."

"While we're on the subject, I'm so sorry that I said what I did about you and Dean tonight," Lorelai said feeling the need to let her daughter know that she didn't think the same way about her that her own mother did about her.

"It's not like you were wrong, Mom. I _was _responsible for breaking up Dean's marriage. Plus, I kind of deserved it for what I said about you and Luke messing around while he was married. I knew it wasn't true. I was just hurt and I lashed out. I know that you would never knowingly sleep with a married man."

"I _so _thought about it," Lorelai confessed. "That makes me just as bad."

"What? When? I didn't know that there was even any opportunity when he was married to Nicole. When was this?"

"The night I had him over here to watch movies when he started talking about that gut thing. He just gave me this look. I can't even describe it, but it made me think that there was something there, you know? Then when I saw him asleep on the couch that night, I thought 'maybe.' When I covered him up with that blanket, I wanted so badly to kiss him and I don't think he would have protested."

"So, what stopped you?"

"You coming home that night," Lorelai answered.

"Wow," Rory said again.

"So, Buffy?"Lorelai asked with a wave at the TV that had long ago shifted to the plain blue screen from being paused for so long.

"I don't know about that one. Look, "Rory said pointing to the TV with a smile understanding her mother's need to change the subject. "The blue show's on. You know how much I like the blue show."

"Ooh, and this is a good one too," Lorelai said joining in her daughter's silliness. "Isn't this the one where they discover the thing in the thing and find out about the thing?"

"I think so," Rory said as she leaned against her mother's shoulder glad that things hadn't changed so much that they couldn't be themselves. "Push play already," she said as her mother leaned her head against hers.

Luke crept down the stairs a short time later having been awoken by Paul Anka once again jumping onto the bed with him. He paused at the foot of the stairs to see mother and daughter cuddled up together on the couch both singing at the top of their lungs, "We are caught in the fire, the point of no return…." He shook his head at their insanity, but smiled at the same time that they were at least together again as he followed Lorelai's nutty dog toward the back door. He turned back at the kitchen doorway to watch them for a moment, thinking about how the words of the song related to their present situation. They'd all been caught in a fire recently, but at least it hadn't yet reached the point of no return. They still had a long way to go, as he was sure Emily wasn't through meddling, but he was happy that there was at least one mother-daughter conflict on its way to being resolved.

Luke was broken out of his reverie by Paul Anka nipping at his heels to get his attention. He tore his gaze away from the two women he loved the most and turned his attention to the psycho dog who seemed to fit right in with this crazy family. "Come on, Cujo, let's get you taken care of," he said on his way to the back door. While Paul Anka took care of business, he thought about the craziness of the last week and smiled at the way things were progressing. He was relieved that there hadn't been irreparable damage to Lorelai's relationship with her daughter and that they were able to begin to work things out. He only hoped that there was some kind of hope for her relationship with Emily. He knew how much the elder Gilmore woman's biting words had hurt her. He knew without a doubt, though that this wasn't a mother-daughter relationship that he had any chance of helping to repair, not when Emily hated him with a fiery passion. There was no way that she'd listen to him the way that Rory had. She couldn't stand to even be in the same room with him. He was sure that the arguing at tonight's dinner had only added more fuel to that particular fire.

Once again, he was yanked from his thoughts by Paul Anka, who was done doing his business and was waiting patiently to be carried back over the back steps. He looked down at the scruffy furball and said, "I can see why Lorelai adores you. You're just as high maintenance as she is." He groaned as he bent to pick the dog up and carried him back inside. He put the dog down just inside the back door before closing it behind him and walking back toward the stairs. He must have been outside longer than he thought because when he walked back into the living room, he saw that the TV was nothing but a blank blue screen and Lorelai and Rory were sound asleep leaned against each other. Before heading back up the stairs, he reached into the hall closet for a blanket and covered them both with it." He gazed at them for just a few more seconds wondering if he should wake them instead of leaving them there. If they slept there all night, he knew they'd both be sore in the morning, but he thought better of it. While he didn't like the idea of sleeping without Lorelai by his side, he knew they needed this time together. He continued to look at the two peacefully sleeping Gilmore women and whispered softly, "I love you, Crazy ladies," before turning to go back to bed with a goofy grin plastered on his face.


	14. Chapter 14

AN: Thanks so much to everyone who's been faithfully reading and reviewing. It is greatly appreciated. I hope you all enjoy this newest chapter. I have a three-day weekend thing going on and will be out of town with my hubby who's bowling in a men's tournament, but I plan on taking my trusty laptop with me so I can use my three days off to do some much-needed catching up on my writing while he's bowling. Thanks for being so patient with me. In a couple more weeks, my winter bowling leagues will be ending and I'll have more time for writing in the evenings before my one summer league starts and should be able to update more often like I did last summer. Again, thank you all for your patience.

Lanie

* * *

Luke was working in the kitchen of the diner at six O'clock the next morning once again helping Caesar prep more ingredients for the special omelet. While the only patrons in the diner at the moment were a handful of townies, he knew it was only a matter of time before the place was swamped again as it had been for a while. He couldn't believe that the _Times _review had been written nearly two weeks before and he was still this busy. He was furiously chopping tomatoes while Caesar cooked extra bacon. If it kept up like this, he was going to need to hire more help. It was good, though. It gave him some security in knowing that he'd be able to provide for his family with no problems regardless of what Emily Gilmore thought of him. He sighed as he thought of the hurt she'd caused Lorelai at the previous night's dinner. He was happy that Rory had come home and things were right with her and her mother again, but he knew that Lorelai was still upset and hurt over her mother's actions and that things were not resolved there by a long shot. He was yanked from his thought by yelling coming from the direction of the front counter. He stopped mid-chop to see what was going on, stepping toward the doorway just as he heard Miss Patty yelling.

"You've got some nerve showing up here, Sister," She was saying. Luke hesitated at the doorway and wondered who she was talking to.

Patty's loud boisterous voice was soon followed by Babette's gravelly one who said, "Yeah, Luke's gettin' married and he is _so _over you!" Luke groaned as he thought of his future mother-in-law's trip to New York, wondering if it had prompted Nicole to pay a visit now that she knew he and Lorelai were together. He imagined she wouldn't be able to resist rubbing his nose in it that she'd been right all along about his feelings for Lorelai.

"And he's gonna' be a daddy," Mrs. Cassini added in her squeaky old lady voice. "So, you just turn right back around and go back to wherever you came from."

Luke stepped out of the kitchen and said, "What the hell is going on around here? What's all the shouting about this early in the morning?" It was then that he noticed the town's own _Hello! _Magazine surrounding someone, but he couldn't tell who.

The three busybodies turned toward him forming a line as if to shield him from whoever it was they were yelling at and Babette said to him, "Never you mind, Sugah. We've got this covered!"

"Move it, Babette," he said with a stern glare trying to mentally steel himself for the confrontation with his ex-wife that he was sure was coming. When Babette stepped aside he was surprised to find that the person the overprotective townswomen had been attacking was the not the ex he was expecting. "Rachel," he said with stunned look on his face.

"Hi," she said with a self-conscious smile as she fidgeted nervously with the camera bag o her shoulder.

"You three, Out!"Luke growled gesturing toward the front door with his thumb.

"But we haven't had our breakfast yet," Mrs. Cassini protested soon followed by the grumblings of Miss Patty and Babette.

"I don't care! Out, Now!" Upon seeing the steely glare on his face, all three gossips made a hasty retreat out the diner's front door leaving Kirk the only customer in the diner as it was still early.

"So," Rachel said awkwardly. "You're getting married."

"Oh, don't act like you didn't know!" He said angrily sure that Rachel's presence in Stars Hollow was another one of Emily's schemes to tear him away from Lorelai. She'd been asking his friends and neighbors insane amounts of questions about him and had hired a private detective to dig up dirt on him so it wasn't a stretch to think that she'd planned this too.

"I didn't know, not until I stepped in here and got attacked by _The Stars Hollow Inquirer,_" she said with a smile trying to joke away the tension in the room.

"Come off it, Rachel! I know why you're really here! I'm not stupid. So, where did Emily dig you up at, huh? Sunbathing in Borneo? Cliff diving in Croatia? No, I got it, hiking the Inca trail in Peru!"

"Actually, most recently I was in Puebla, Mexico for the Cinco de Mayo celebration. I got some great pictures too. The parades, the parties, People just having a good time." She glanced at him warily wondering where his anger was coming from.

"And you left all that to come back here to boring old Stars Hollow, just on a whim, like last time?"He asked skeptically.

"Kind of," She said.

"Don't play games with me, Rachel. I want to know what Emily did to get you to do her dirty work! Don't try to tell me she's not behind your impromptu visit to a town you couldn't wait to get away from!"

"First of all, I don't know who Emily is and I'm insulted by the fact that you think that I would do anyone else's dirty work. You know me, Luke. You should know better than anyone that I go where I want, when I want!"

"Then why _are _you here? If you think you can just waltz in here again and pick up where we left off, you can think again," he said hotly still not believing her. "it's not gonna happen!"

"Get over yourself, Luke! I didn't come here for you," she said as she rummaged in her bag and pulled out a magazine slamming it on the counter in front of him. "This is why I came!"

Luke glanced at it and saw that the magazine she'd unceremoniously dropped on the counter was the issue of _American Travel _containing the review of the Dragonfly. "Oh," he said looking down at it. "You saw this, huh?"

"I spend a lot of time in airports, Luke. This was in every one of them. When I saw that Lorelai finally did it, I wanted to come see the inn in person since I'm the one who helped her find it," she explained. "I just thought I would come here first and let you know that I'm in town. This is a very small town and I thought you should hear it from me rather than someone else."

"So, you're really not here as part of my future mother-in-law's scheming to break up me and Lorelai?"

"Why would I do that when the last time I was here, I was encouraging you to tell Lorelai how you really felt about her? God, you're an idiot sometimes!"

"I'm sorry," he said. "It's just Lorelai's mother has been interfering non-stop since she found out that we're engaged." He went on to explain some of the craziness of Emily Gilmore's machinations.

"It's ok," she said then gestured to the magazine. "I understand from that article that she'd not the easiest woman in the world to get along with," she added with a grin. "I thought that stuff sounded a little exaggerated though."

Luke chuckled as he recalled the stories Lorelai had told about her mother and replied, "No, not exaggerated. That's Emily Gilmore. She's not at all thrilled that I'm marrying her only daughter."

"I imagine she's even less thrilled that you got her pregnant," Rachel said recalling Mrs. Cassini's outburst that Luke was going to be a daddy.

"You could say that," Luke replied.

"She's not a very nice person," Kirk piped up.

"That's the understatement of the year," Luke said still chuckling having momentarily forgotten that Kirk was there. "Sums it up, though."

"When I brought out the review in the _Times _of Luke's cooking, she just turned up her nose at it as if it wasn't a big deal. Of course, I've always known that Luke was good. Who else would let me have a patty melt cut into stars or make me a smiley face with my bacon and eggs or put gummy worms in my mud pie?"

Rachel laughed at the way Kirk judged good cooking and said, "What's this about a review in the _Times_?"

Kirk fished the crumpled newspaper clipping out of his pocket and handed it to Rachel. "Here it is," he said and turned back to his breakfast.

"You're still carrying that stupid thing around?"Luke asked him in surprise while Rachel read.

"Well, sure," Kirk said. "How else am I gonna spread the word? The critic said we've got a hidden gem here in Stars Hollow. People need to know about it so it doesn't _stay_ hidden."

"Look at you, coming up in the world," Rachel said when she finished reading, "Getting a review from the _New York Times_."

Before Luke could say anything in response Lorelai came flying through the door yelling, "Luke! Coffee, coffee, coffee!" She was followed by a lagging Rory who looked half-awake.

Luke looked at his fiancée and said, "No, No, and hmmm, let me think here, No."

"Luke!"Lorelai pleaded with a petulant stomp of her foot.

"Well, I can see at least some things never change," Rachel said with a grin.

"What are you doing here?"Rory asked suddenly alert as she eyed Rachel suspiciously wondering as Luke had if this was another one of her grandmother's plots to split them up. "You just decide to drop in once every five years to mess with Luke's head?"

"I'm not here to mess with anybody's head…"Rachel began but was cut off by Luke.

"She saw the article on the inn and came to see it," Luke explained to his future step-daughter before things could get ugly the way they had with Miss Patty, Babette and Mrs. Cassini.

"Oh," Rory said as she sat down at the table by the window still skeptical, wondering if that was her true intention. "Can I get some coffee, Luke?"

"Sure," he said as he reached for the coffee pot and poured her a cup.

"Great, you'll give her coffee, but you keep me deprived. That is so wrong," Lorelai pouted.

"You'll live. Decaf or nothing," Luke said not backing down on his coffee mandate.

"Fine," Lorelai said in a huff as she sat down with her daughter.

Luke walked to the table with the decaf pot he asked her, "What are you doing up so early anyway?"

"This rotten kid of yours woke me up, once again delighting in making Mommy sick," Lorelai said while Luke poured her coffee.

"At which point, Mom decided that if she had to be up, so did I," Rory grumbled. "It's so not fair. You get her pregnant and I'm the one who has to suffer. I was peacefully sleeping and she dragged me up off the couch insisting that we had to come here."

"Speaking of which, how come you let us just stay there on the couch?"Lorelai asked him.

"I tried to get you up about two, but you bit me so I decided to just leave you there," Luke answered.

"I did not bite you," Lorelai protested indignantly.

"You did too," he said rolling up the sleeve of his flannel shirt to show her the faint bite marks on his forearm.

"Hmmm, so I did," she said with a giggle then added with a wicked grin, "But you've never complained about me biting you before."

"Mom, Eww," Rory said with a grimace.

"You guys want breakfast?"Luke said hastily changing the subject.

"Banana pancakes with a side of bacon," Lorelai answered.

"Again with the banana?"Luke asked with a grin.

'Yes, again with the banana," Lorelai said mocking his smug tone causing Luke to laugh.

"French toast for me, please," Rory said, "Extra powdered sugar and half bacon, half sausage."

"You got it, Kid," he said as he scribbled down their orders and walked back into the kitchen to hand them off to Caesar.

There was a momentary awkward silence as both Gilmore women stared warily at Rachel and wondered if she'd really just come to see the inn. It was soon broken by Rachel as she picked up her copy of _American Travel _from the counter and held it up for Lorelai to see, "So, um…congratulations, Lorelai. You really did it," she said with a pleasant smile.

"Yeah, I did, but I didn't do it all alone. I had Sookie, and Michel, and _Luke," _she said with an emphasis on Luke's name.

"I'm happy for you. I saw the pictures and it looks amazing. Of course, what can you really tell from a picture, unless you've got a _really _good photographer?" Rachel teased with a gesture to her camera bag trying to lighten the mood a little. "I wanted to see it in person. I remember the ruin it was when I showed it to you and I don't know…I….uh….I just wanted to see it."

"That's really the only reason you're here?"

"That's it," Rachel confirmed.

Rory eyed her disbelievingly and asked, "If that's true, then why did you come to _Luke's _first and not the Dragonfly?" After learning of her grandmother's ill-conceived ploys to try to ruin her mother's happiness, she wasn't willing to just let it go. Her mom was so happy and she was determined to see that she stayed that way.

"I thought that I should at least have the courtesy to let Luke know I was I town. I figured he should hear it from me before the gossip-mill that is this town started spreading rumors and coming up with all kinds of crazy ideas about why I'm here. Besides, I also wanted to see if he listened to the advice I gave him before I left last time. Apparently he did."

"What advice?"Lorelai asked curiously.

"He didn't tell you why I left?"

"No," Lorelai said burning with curiosity. "Why _did _you leave?"

Rachel hesitated for a moment, debating on whether or not to tell her and decided not to, "It doesn't really matter. If you want to know, ask Luke about it. The important thing is that you two are together now and he's happy. That's all I ever wanted for him."

"So, you're ok with me and Luke?"Lorelai asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I just said I'm happy for you, didn't I?"

"I thought you meant about the inn," Lorelai replied never imagining in a million years that Luke's on-again, off-again girlfriend of many years would be this supportive when her own mother wouldn't.

"I meant about all of it. Let's face it, Luke and I were never meant to be the happily-ever-after kind of couple. He'd strictly a home-town guy and I'm the girl who's racked up more frequent flyer miles than anyone could possibly use in a lifetime."

"So, you're not staying in town then?"Lorelai questioned still wondering if Rachel was being sincere.

"Probably not for long," Rachel answered. "I hadn't really decided yet. I'd just some back to The States after I finished up a job in Mexico, saw the review of the inn and got on a plane to Hartford. I wasn't even thinking about what I was going to do when I got here until I was here."

"Well, now that you're here. Do you wanna join us for breakfast? You can tell us about your job in Mexico."

"Mom," Rory said in a warning tone, still distrustful of Rachel.

"I don't wanna make you uncomfortable," she said.

"It's fine. We can catch up. I'm going to be at the inn for a while this morning. Maybe I could give you a tour of the place."

"That'd be nice. I'd love to see what you've done with it."

"Good, so, come on, sit down."

"Ok, I'm in," she said as she sat opposite Rory who was still glaring at her coolly.

Lorelai gave her daughter a look that said 'Be nice' causing Rory to soften her expression a little before asking, "So, what were you doing in Mexico?"

Rachel looked at the young woman who'd grown up so much since the last time she saw her and launched into an explanation of her partying in Puebla. Rory's expression changed from one of stubborn disbelief to one of rapt enthusiasm as Rachel detailed the Cinco de Mayo celebration she'd just been a part of. Rory listened eagerly as she'd always had a desire to travel and see the world, all of her fears about Rachel forgotten.

Luke stepped out of the kitchen and watched the three women interacting with a smile, insanely relieved that Rachel seemed to be telling the truth about not being there to cause trouble. He delivered their food in silence, not wanting to disrupt the conversation. As he set their plates down, he noticed that the trio of town gossips had returned and were forlornly staring through the window at them leery of re-entering the diner after being barked at by him just a short time ago. He silently gestured for them to come back inside letting them know that they were still welcome. The three women wasted no time in barreling back into the diner and peppering Rachel with questions about her travels, Miss Patty, of course being the loudest one of all. Luke shook his head at their nuttiness, but smiled all the same. He knew that even though they may be overbearing at times, he also knew that all of the crazy things they did were done because they cared. He was well aware that their rapid change in attitude toward Rachel was all about Lorelai and the fact that she accepted her being there. Who could argue with that?

While Rachel was being hammered with non-stop questions, Rory quietly slipped from her seat and approached Luke where he stood watching from a distance. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"She asked hesitantly.

"Of course," he said wondering what the look of concern on her face was about.

"Well, I know this is a lot to ask with what's been going on, but I kind of need a favor," she said. "And it's kind of a big favor."

"Anything, Kid," he said. "Just tell me what it is."

Rory hesitated for another brief moment not sure how to get the words out. When she finally did say what was on her mind, it all came out in a rush. "Well, when I left Grandma's last night, I was so angry that I wasn't really thinking about anything but getting the hell out of there. I just threw some stuff in a bag and bolted, but the rest of my stuff is still in her stupid pool house and I need to go back there and get it. I don't want to, but I need my stuff and my car just isn't big enough to get in all in one trip and Mom refuses to go back there, which I totally get, but now I'm kind of stuck because I don't want to have to keep driving back and forth to get all my stuff and I was wondering if maybe you'd drive me up there in your truck, so I only have to deal with being there one more time. I'll understand if you say no and I wouldn't blame you a bit if you did after the horrible way Grandma's treated you, but-"

"I'll do it," Luke said cutting her off mid-ramble.

"You will?"She asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I'll do it," he repeated. "When Lane gets here in a little while, we'll go. I think I've even got some boxes left from when I moved my stuff over to the house that you can have for your stuff."

"You really don't mind doing this?"

"Not if it keeps you in Stars Hollow where you belong," He said. "Besides, it'll give us some time to catch up while your mom's at the inn."

"Ok, Good. Do you think we'll have enough time to get it all done before the shopping trip this afternoon? Mom asked me to go with her and Sookie to shop for a wedding dress."

"We'll make sure we get done in plenty of time," Luke said confidently not wanting Rory and Lorelai to miss out on anymore mother-daughter time.

"Thanks, Luke," Rory said with a grateful smile.

"You're welcome. Now, go eat your breakfast before it gets cold."

On her way back to her seat, Rory was crushed in a hug by Babette who gushed, "Oh, Sugah, we are so glad you're back. You have no idea how worried we were about you when you didn't come home for the summer!"

"Thanks, Babette," Rory said struggling a little in the smaller woman's vice-like grip. "I do need to breathe, though"

"Babette, Honey, give the child some air," Miss Patty said. "We're all glad Rory's home, but you don't want to suffocate her.

"Right," Babette said releasing her firm hold on the younger Gilmore girl. "I just got a little carried away there. I'm just so damn happy you're home, Kiddo."

"Me too," Rory said with a smile at her mother as she returned to her seat and rejoined the conversation.

* * *

Emily walked out the front door of her house to leave for her DAR meeting and was shocked to find a familiar ugly green truck parked in her driveway. She hurried back into the house to find out what was going on. She found Richard in the living room engrossed in the morning paper. "What the hell is that man doing here?" She demanded of her husband.

"What man?"Richard said glancing up from the paper but not putting it down.

"What do you mean 'what man'?" she asked incredulously. "That filthy man with his filthy truck!"

Richard lowered his head back to the newspaper and said calmly, "If you're talking about Luke, he's here to help Rory retrieve the rest of her things." He resumed reading not caring anymore that his wife was having one of her usual fits about Luke's presence on their property.

"What? You just let him come in here without informing me about it?"

Richard finally put the paper down, removed his reading glasses and stared at his wife before saying in an even tone, "As you can very clearly see, Emily, he's not in here. I imagine he's in the pool house with Rory helping her to pack up her belongings."

"You mean you don't know for sure where he is? How could you let this happen? He could be anywhere doing anything in our home!"

Richard sighed and said, "No, he couldn't. I imagine that he had no desire to step foot in this house again after the way you've been treating him. He only came here for Rory. He made that very plain when I talked to him on the phone this morning."

"You knew about this?"

"Yes, I knew about it. He phoned me this morning to make sure that it was ok. Unlike you, Emily, he doesn't just go barging into people's homes without permission."

"He phoned you? That's funny, because I don't remember hearing the phone ring."

"It didn't," Richard replied. "Luke called me on my cell phone to ask me if it was all right to come get Rory's things."

"Your cell phone? You gave that despicable man your personal cell phone number?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Yes, Emily, I did, before I left Stars Hollow yesterday. I wanted him to have a way to contact me in case something happened to Lorelai. It's quite clear that you're no good at delivering messages since you neglected to tell me about Sookie's messages regarding the engagement party tonight."

"I just can't believe you would do this," Emily said with a frown at her husband.

"Believe it, Emily," He said firmly as he sat back down in his favorite armchair before adding, "Shouldn't you be going? You'll be late for your DAR meeting." He picked up his glasses and put them back on before retrieving his newspaper and diving into it once again.

"I'm going, but this conversation is _not _over," she said in a huff.

"Have a nice day, Emily," he said as she walked out the front door, slamming it behind her.

* * *

Lorelai bounced into the diner on Saturday afternoon carrying a large box and smiling happily at all the progress she, Rory and Sookie had made on planning her wedding. "Luke," she shouted when she didn't seem him anywhere.

"What's up," he said as he emerged from the kitchen and leaned over the box to greet her with a kiss. "What is that?" he questioned as she set the box down on the nearest empty table.

"This, my friend, is the perfect wedding dress that I'm going to wear on the day I marry my prefect man," she gushed and reached up for another kiss.

"You found a dress already?"

"Yeah, I did and I picked out your tux. I've got the address of the bridal shop so all you have to do is show up for a fitting. Oh, and I found the perfect daisy invitations and got them ordered, which I know sounds a little girly, but trust me, there are no macho wedding invitations, so you just have to give me that one. Anyway, it cost a little extra but they're doing a rush order on them since the wedding's so soon. They're supposed to be delivered to the house on Tuesday. All we have to do is finalize the guest list and get them sent out. Sookie's got the menu all planned out now, along with the cake. We picked out Rory and Sookie's dresses and shoes and they'll be ready next weekend. It's all coming together, Hon."

"Good," he said with a smile at her enthusiasm.

"I can't wait until you see me in this dress. Your eyeballs are gonna pop right out of your head."

"Just make sure you save the eyeball-popping until our wedding day. You know it's bad luck for me to see the dress before the wedding."

"Since when do you believe in superstitious stuff like that?"

"I don't," he said. "But when it comes to our wedding, I'm not taking a chance on anything screwing it up."

"Nothing is going to screw up our wedding day," she said firmly. "If we made it past all the hell my mother's put us through for the past week, including last night's drama-fest, we can make it through anything," she added as she picked up the dress box."Now, I'm gonna go home and stash this in Rory's closet so we don't run the risk of you seeing it before the big day and I will see you later."

"Ok," he said as he kissed her lightly. "I'll be home early so I can get dressed for this surprise engagement party tonight that we're not supposed to know about."

"Just remember, act surprised," she reminded him as she bounced out of the diner as quickly as she'd bounced in.

* * *

Richard walked into the bedroom he usually shared with his wife that evening to make sure she was getting dressed for the party and found her in bed with a book. He looked at her curiously and asked,"What are you doing in your pajamas already?"

Emily glanced up from her book and said,"The last few days have been a little rough and I've got a headache so I thought going to bed a little early might help me feel better."

"This is not going to happen, Emily. You're not going to spend the night in bed instead of going to Lorelai's engagement party."

"Yes, I am. I'm staying right here," she said and returned to the pretense of reading her book.

Richard stomped over to her and snatched the book from her hands, tossing it across the room before grabbing his wife by arm and pulling her out of bed, "No. you're not. You are going to get dressed and get downstairs to go to this party."

She yanked her arm out of his grasp and said,"Have you completely lost your mind, Richard? Do you honestly think that I have any desire to go to that party to celebrate this travesty?"

"I don't care whether you have a desire to go or not! You're _going _to this party and you're going to smile and nod and shake hands with people and be polite and at least pretend to be happy for our daughter," Richard said firmly as he walked to the closet and pulled a dress from it. "Now, put this on," he said as he tossed the dress to her.

"I will not!" she said petulantly as she flung the dress to the floor. "Going to that party would mean that I support Lorelai's decision to marry that horrible man and I don't! I can't! You can simply tell Lorelai that I'm not feeling well."

"I won't lie to our daughter on your behalf. You're going to that party. If I have to forcibly drag you to Stars Hollow kicking and screaming, I will. You are not going to turn your back on your daughter just because she's doing something with her life that you don't like!"

"She's the one who's turned her back on me! She's the one who stormed out of here last night and made it clear that she was never coming back and got Rory to do the same, and that man is to blame!"

"Emily, for once I'm putting my foot down! You're coming with me to this party and that's final!" He shouted as he advanced on her. "Now, are you going to cooperate and get dressed or do I have to do it for you? I will, if that's what it takes. Or better yet, I'll take you there in your pajamas. I don't care one way or the other, but you're going with me to this party!"

Emily shuddered a little at him towering over her with a look of fury etched on his face. The only other time in their life together that she'd seen that look was when she'd seen him blow up on Christopher the day they'd found out about Lorelai's teen pregnancy. "Fine, I'll go, but I'm doing this under protest and if you think that I'm going to suck up to that man, you're insane."

"I'm not asking you to suck up to him, but you need to at least be civil to him. In just a month, he's going to our son-in-law. He's the father of our unborn grandchild and you _will_ be cordial to him. I mean it, Emily! If you do one thing tonight to cause Lorelai anymore heartache, I will personally make sure that you pay for it. Now, get dressed. If you're not downstairs ready to go in ten minutes, I'll be back." He walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him. Emily stared at the floor for a moment trying to calm herself before picking up the discarded dress and following her husband's orders.


End file.
